The New World
by Candyland
Summary: —CHAPTER 8 UP— A Sakura and Syaoran reincarnation fic. When all seems lost, there is still hope, though precious few can find it as the world crumbles around them. But salvation may be found in a legend, and a mysterious deathbed prophecy.
1. The Birth of a Legend

**AN: **Woo, new fic. Go me. Majorly different from my other stuff. I've never written anything like this before, so we'll see how it turns out. cross fingers Enjoy. I don't own CCS. I also don't own the title song of this fic which, as you probably guessed, is called "The New World." It's the title song for an off Broadway show called _Songs for a New World, _and is therefore owned by Jason Robert Brown.

This takes place after the Star/Sakura Card saga. Our heroes are about sixteen, seventeen-ish, at the beginning of this tale. Touya doesn't live at home anymore (duh!). Syaoran and Sakura are a couple, Eriol is still in Tomoeda. The whole Kaho thing with Eriol never happened—she's still alive, though, but she's abroad, not in Japan. Okay? Okay.

* * *

**Chapter One—The Birth of a Legend**

_She clutched her wand and looked frantically around. It was night, but the park was illuminated by the moon and the stars. It was enough so that she could see without using a Card, like she had used GLOW at the festival that one night._

_The only sounds she could hear were dry leaves crunching beneath her shoes, and her heart hammering in a frantic attempt to leap out of her chest. And the faint, almost inaudible cry of the wind._

_King Penguin loomed above her. Normally just a large piece of playground equipment, with the moonlight behind him, he suddenly looked foreboding and terrifying. She was scared._

_Where am I? Where is everyone? Syaoran-kun?_

_A twig snapped nearby, and she whirled to face it, tightening her grasp on her wand. She was holding onto it so tightly that her knuckles were white, and starting to hurt. But she couldn't loosen her grasp. She couldn't back down—not now. There was far too much at stake._

_Her eyes darted back and forth, searching desperately for the source of the noise. Her tongue slid over dry lips, and tiny beads of perspiration began to dot her forehead. This was worse than anything she had ever been through. And she was all alone. So alone…_

_A yell pierced the air, and she spun again to face the direction it had come from. There was nothing, but the trees that lined the park. She could see nothing, but her instincts were screaming at her, telling her not to trust her eyes. Appearances could be deceiving, and everything she was seeing and feeling were leading her to believe that such was the case here. There was more than met the eye…_

_And she never went against her instincts. Since fully coming into her magic a mere year ago and learning to use it, she had become a force to be reckoned with. Her gut feelings, fine-tuned by her magic, were almost infalliable. Very rarely was she wrong when she had a premonition about something._

_Right now, that sixth sense she had so carefully developed was telling her to run as far away from that awful place as she could get. Her mind was sending up flares of the old law of the animal kingdom, the fight or flight principle. And everything within her was telling her to choose flight._

_But she couldn't leave! Not now!_

_She could sense it. Whatever it was that was so nearby was powerful, but hiding it. But what she was sensing sent chills running up and down her spine. It was terrible, so horribly evil. But where was it?_

_There was a rustling noise—it was the only warning she had. Then something heavy hit the ground immediately beside her. Instinctively, she ducked away, putting several feet of space between herself and the missile that had most likely been aimed at her. Brandishing her wand, she gripped a Card firmly between her thumb and forefinger. It was warm, and she could almost feel it moving, as though alive, and more than ready to leap to her command should she summon it._

_She looked down at the object that had been so close to striking her. Before she could stop herself, wand and Card fell from her gloved fingers, and she clasped both hands over her mouth, barely stifling an ear-piercing scream of horror._

_She stumbled back a few steps, finally tripping and landing hard on her back as she stared at it, shaking from head to toe. One hand clambored along the ground, feeling around, until it grasped the narrow handle of her wand. But her other hand stayed clamped firmly over her mouth to hold back further screams. Waves of nausea slammed against her, almost to the point that she felt ready to just pass out. Tears streamed unbidden from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks, soaking into her glove._

_Her hand moved away from her mouth enough for her to stutter out something. But in the dream, though her lips moved, she heard nothing._

_A white light erupted behind her, and she spun to face it. But it was too late, and the blinding brightness engulfed her. It burned her, swallowing her in white-blue flames. She couldn't breathe or move. All she could feel was the excruciating pain, licking at her as the fire did…and she was falling, falling, falling, as the sound of high-pitched cackling echoed in her ears…_

"NO!"

With a single screamed word, Kinomoto Sakura sat up in bed.

She gasped desperately for air, trying with all her might to force much needed oxygen into her lungs. But even her body seemed to be against her. Cold, clammy sweat clung to her; she was drenched in it, yet she felt like she was burning up. Her hair was matted to the back of her neck. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf tossed in a gale.

She knew no one would come upstairs to see what the fuss was. Her father wasn't home—he was out on an important dig all week. And her onii-chan was gone; he had moved out a few years before, after finishing college. She missed him, of course, but at times like this, is was nice to not have to explain to anyone who may or may not understand.

Touya was usually pretty good about listening to his sister's occasional prophetic dreams, but sometimes he just didn't seem to understand what a burden it could be to know when something would happen, usually something awful. She had forseen an accident on an expedition that had landed her father in the hospital for two weeks—and people who didn't have that kind of power couldn't usually understand how sickening it was to have to sit by the phone and simply wait for a phone call that you already knew was coming, and knew what was going to be said.

A little groan came from her desk, and a second later, a little golden stuffed animal flew out of the bottom drawer and perched itself on top of her desk. "Hmm…" it rubbed sleepily at its eyes. "Sakura, what'sa matter? What time it is?"

She turned a little to glance over her shoulder at the clock. "It's about two-thirty in the morning,"

"What's wrong?" Keroberos, the mighty Beast of the Seal, asked with a yawn.

"I had a dream again, Kero-chan," she sighed.

"Again?" he said in disbelief.

"This one was different, though," Sakura pushed the blankets away and swung her legs over the side of the bed so that she was facing her Sun Guardian. "It wasn't like the ones I used to have, with Tokyo Tower or Tsukimine Shrine. This was worse."

"What was it about?"

Sakura's forehead creased in thought as she tried to remember what she had dreamt. "I was in the park. By King Penguin. It was night, and the moon was out, and lots of stars. I was alone, but there was something out there in the trees. I mean, I couldn't see anything, but I could feel it. It was so awful…and I kept wondering where Syaoran-kun was."

Kero rolled his eyes at the mention of the accursed "Chinese gaki" (even after all this time, he and the kid still had issues—though Li Syaoran really wasn't a kid anymore), but held his peace so that she could continue her story. But she stopped. An uneasy silence fell over the darkened bedroom.

Finally, the small magical beast's temper broke. "And?"

He was startled when she jumped at the sound of his voice. She looked at him and shook her head, confusion marring her delicate features. "I—I can't remember what happened. I think there was something wrong, but I didn't know what. I was scared…and something was happening." She frowned. "I can only remember what I felt, but not what actually happened."

"It's not like you to forget a dream like this," Kero commented as he folded his tiny arms over his chest. And it was the truth. Ever since she had come into her powers, Sakura's dreams of premonition had become more and more commonplace, and had foretold events ranging from pop quizzes at school to a recent gale that had caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to buildings and property. But she had rarely forgotten what such a dream had indicated.

"I don't know, Kero-chan," she shrugged. Immediately after waking up, she had been wide awake. Now, the more she tried to think about things, the more her mind demanded that she surrender all attempts at rational, logical thought, and allow herself to just drift back into the peaceful realm of slumber. "I'm just tired now. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow. Just go back to sleep." She pulled her legs back up onto the bed and shoved them under the covers; then she rolled over and pulled the blanket up to under her chin. "Goodnight, Kero-chan." And she said no more.

A few minutes later, her breathing had evened and deepened. The little magical creature had long since picked up on such things as sure signs that his Mistress was asleep.

But rather than do as she said and return to the drawer that was his equivalent of a bedroom, he flapped his wings a little, moved across the room, and lighted on the pillow, careful so as not to wake her up again. Although he was sure that she wouldn't stir, better to be cautious and not risk it.

He watched her sleep for a moment, as he had done so many times before in the past when something was troubling her. By all accounts, not remembering a dream that had made her wake up screaming should have had her at the very least concerned. But she seemed to be content; her expression as she slept was peaceful, and she showed no signs of being disturbed in any way. It really hadn't bothered her that she couldn't remember a dream.

Kero worried. He wasn't a worrier by nature, but he had a tendency to worry about Sakura a lot. From the time they had met, after she had opened the Book of the Clow and unwittingly dispersed the Cards, through everything up until now, he had always worried about her. Her health, her grades, her spirits, her heart, her happiness, and, on a few rare occasions, her sanity.

And right now, Kero was worried, though he wasn't exactly sure why.

It might have been the dream that she couldn't remember. But it might not have been.

* * *

The sound of the alarm rather rudely dragged Sakura from a particularly pleasant sleep. She hadn't been dreaming, that was for sure. When she dreamed often during the night, she never woke up feeling rested. But now, though she didn't want to wake up, as she stretched and rubbed her eyes, she realized she felt great, in spite of that dream.

That dream. She was a little amused to realize that she thought of it as such. _That_ dream.

The dream she knew she had had, but couldn't remember to save her life. All she could remember was that she had been in the park, and frightened. Very frightened.

But fretting and dwelling over it wasn't going to make her remember anything. Best to not think about it right now, and focus on more important things. Like getting to school on time.

Shrugging the blankets away, she scampered out of bed and across the room to her closet, where her school uniforms were. Sometimes it was still strange to think that she was already in high school. The uniform was the same one her brother had worn when he went to Seijuu High, only the feminine version.

Sakura ran a brush through her hair, and scampered downstairs to put some breakfast together for herself and Kero. As the door closed behind her, the bottom drawer of her desk slid open, and a small animal popped its head out.

"Geez, you're too energetic this morning," he muttered, rubbing at his eyes. "Weren't we going to talk about that dream?" Then he realized that she wasn't there. "Oi, Sakura!" He flew out of the drawer, pushed down on the doorknob to open the door, and zipped down the stairs into the kitchen, where his Mistress was humming to herself as she mixed some pancake batter.

"Ohayo, Kero-chan," she beamed at him with her usual good nature. It was one of those things she had never lost—Sakura had retained her ever cheerful demeanor. And Kero was grateful for it. She was much easier to deal with when she was happy.

"Sakura, remember? We were going to talk about that dream you can't remember?" the Beast of the Seal landed on the counter by her elbow and looked up at her inquisitively.

"What's to talk about? I told you what I remember," she shrugged, pouring batter into the pan. It bubbled and made a strangely pleasant hissing noise as it sizzled a bit. "What can we discuss about it if I can't remember it?"

"It's just not like you to not remember dreams," Kero pointed out.

"I know, I know, and I know I should be worried," she said calmly. "But for some reason, I'm not. Who knows, maybe I'll remember something else as the day goes on." She looked down at the browning batter in the skillet. "I'll ask Syaoran-kun and Eriol-kun if they picked up anything strange. Maybe they'll know something. So don't worry so much." She smiled. "I think I was the only one in the dream, though. I don't think anyone from my family was there."

She flipped the pancakes. "Do you want some?"

With a sigh of defeat, Kero nodded. Sometimes teenagers were just impossible, even Sakura.

* * *

"Ohayo, Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura said cheerfully, all but bouncing into the classroom.

"Ohayo, Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo replied, waving at her best friend as she entered the room.

"Are Syaoran-kun and Eriol-kun here yet?" Sakura asked, dropping her backpack down beside her chair. "I need to ask them something."

"I haven't seen them, but that doesn't mean they're not here," Tomoyo replied, absently twisting a strand of long, dark hair around her finger. "What do you need to ask them?"

"I had a dream last night, but I can't remember it," the auburn-haired young woman shrugged and fished a pencil from her bag. "I just want to see if either of them picked anything up. That's all."

"It's not like you to forget your dreams," Tomoyo said in an echo of Kero's opinion from earlier. "But I'm sure if something happened, those two will be able to help."

As if on cue, a tall young man strolled in. Predicatably, he was holding a rather large book in front of his face, obscuring it. But that was normal.

Sakura giggled. "Eriol-kun, do you ever stop reading?"

He lowered the book enough that he could peer over the top of it at her. His eyes danced behind his glasses. "Why? Is there something better going on?"

"I need to ask you a question. It's kind of important, I think."

Immediately, he closed the book and dropped into the desk behind Tomoyo—which, ironically enough, was his true seat. He set the volume—which was extremely thick, to Sakura's mind—down on the top of his desk and then focused his full attention on her. "What's wrong?"

"I had a dream last night," she began. "And I don't remember much of it. Not enough to be able to tell what's going to happen, anyway. And before you ask, yes, I'm sure it was one of _those_ dreams. Did you sense anything? Anything at all?"

He tapped his chin thoughtfully with one finger as he thought back; slowly, he shook his head. "I don't remember anything. But that doesn't mean it wasn't there. I mean, we're only human." His forehead creased as he pondered it. "Well, now you've got me curious." He shrugged. "I don't think anything happened. But if something comes up, you'll be the first to know." He picked up the book and opened it, then paused. "But it's really not like you to forget dreams."

"Would everyone stop saying that? First Kero-chan, then Tomoyo-chan, now you," Sakura threw her hands up in mock annoyance. "If Syaoran-kun says it, I might have to strangle him." She made a fairly decent attempt to look menacing, earning a laugh from her friends.

The door slid open, and another young man entered. "Ohayo," he said automatically as he dropped his bag on his desk and dropped into his seat. He ran a hand through his shock of brown hair and sighed. It was then that he realized everyone's eyes were on him. He glanced around, suddenly looking very much like a deer caught in a car's headlights. "Nani?"

"Ohayo, Syaoran-kun," Sakura chirped. "Did you sense anything strange last night?"

"Why?" he asked.

"I had a dream, one of _those_ dreams," she emphaszed the word 'those,' as she had before with Eriol to make certain he knew what she was talking about, while at the same time preventing others from being able to know what she meant.

He immediately looked concerned. "What was it about?"

"I was in the park, it was night, and I was scared," Sakura said shortly. "That's all I can remember about it. So I wanted to know if you knew of anything."

One brown eyebrow arched. "It's not like you to forget your dreams."

With a little growl of feigned anger, she threw a ball of wadded-up notebook paper at him; it bounced off his forehead. Eriol and Tomoyo laughed, while Syaoran looked genuinely confused. Had he done something wrong?

The teacher came in then, and all conversation came to a screeching halt as class began. But as Eriol turned his attention towards the instructor at the front of the room, a presence brushed his mind.

_:There was something.:_

He managed to keep from jumping outright, but instead replied, _:What__ happened:_ Out of the corner of his eye, he shot a glance at the mental speaker.

Li Syaoran met his sideways glance carefully. _:I'm not sure.:_

_:What do you mean:_

Syaoran's eyes drifted forward, not betraying the mental conversation that was flying through the air by means of a magical connection. His expression was neutral, and the voice that floated into Eriol's mind was equally flat, deceptively calm. _:I can't remember my dream either.:

* * *

_

Eriol stared straight ahead. Everything about him gave the impression that he was an attentive student, engrossed in the teacher's lecture, carefully logging every nuance of information away to be gone back over later. But this was merely an illusion. He had long since mastered the art of not paying attention while making it look like he was. It really wasn't that hard.

This was a history lecture, something Eriol could have quite easily done without. After all, he had actually lived through many of the events covered in these classes—in his past life, of course. Although some days it was amusing to listen to the lecture or read the text and see what they had gotten right and which parts had been butchered, today was not one of those days.

Sakura's story had been troubling enough, but Syaoran's had compounded it. Whereas Sakura dreamed fairly often and rarely forgot what she dreamt, Syaoran's foretelling dreams were much rarer, and he _never_ forgot them. Ever.

Every once in a while, he shot a sideways glance at Syaoran and Sakura. The latter was studiously taking notes on the teacher's lecture. Though Syaoran looked as though he was paying attention to what was being said in the lecture, someone who knew him well could read quite plainly that the young man was troubled, and had far more on his mind than a review of some history book.

Why wouldn't they be able to remember? The both of them, no less? And yet he had experienced nothing, sensed nothing. Something was wrong here.

Ever since returning to Japan, Eriol had settled into the routine of a calm, normal life. Rarely were there opportunities or necessities for magic, and it was quite nice that way. Oh, there were the occasional pranks on Li that required him to make strange things magically appear, but even his practical jokes had toned down a bit. It was nice for the reincarnation of Clow Reed to be able to live his own life.

Yet now it looked like the peace they had enjoyed for the past several years may be in jeopardy. And somehow, Sakura and Syaoran were involved; they were definitely going to be important to whatever was to come. He was sure of that. It was everything else that was uncertain.

* * *

Lunchtime could not possibly have come soon enough. A time of freedom, to sit, eat, and talk with friends, with no teachers peering over one's shoulder in the middle of an important conversation.

Eriol had joined the rest of his classmates in the rush out of the classroom. But on his way out, he managed to catch Syaoran's eye. The latter nodded, signalling that a meeting had been set up without a single word being spoken between the parties involved. And he had no doubt that the message would be passed along to those who needed to know.

And just as he had expected, within a few minutes he was sitting with Sakura and Tomoyo as well as Syaoran; they were shaded beneath the boughs of their favorite tree, their usual spot.

Tomoyo and Sakura were their usually talkative, cheerful selves; it was quite evident that Sakura was giving no further thought to her mysterious dream. Syaoran, on the other hand, seemed fairly tense, obviously waiting for Eriol to say something and let the axe fall.

And Eriol was not one to disappoint.

"Syaoran-kun, I would like to ask something that's been bothering me all day," Eriol began conversationally. After all this time, the four of them were all on a first name basis. He sounded like he was speaking of the weather or some such mundane topic.

"Nani?" Li's tone was equally calm, although his posture tensed up a bit more.

"Would you please explain what you meant when you said that you couldn't remember your dream either?" Eriol asked. Having thrown it out into the open for everyone to hear, he could now sit back and enjoy the fireworks a bit.

"Nani?" Sakura yelped in surprise. She gave her boyfriend a confused look. "Syaoran-kun, you had a dream too? Why didn't you tell me? I even asked!"

"Like he said, I can't remember most of it," Syaoran shot a murderous glance Eriol's way as he replied. "But it's didn't really bother me until after you said you'd forgotten yours."

"It's not like you to forget your dreams, Syaoran," Sakura said, half teasing for everyone's earlier comments about her own nighttime visions. "But what do you remember?"

He set down his Bento box and crossed his arms; his brow knitted in thought as he tried to remember everything he could about the mysterious dream. "It was night, and I was outside. You know the trees around the park? I think that's where I was, but I'm not sure."

Sakura felt her blood run cold. This sounded vaguely familiar.

"I couldn't see anyone around me, but there was someone out there. Hiding," he was speaking slowly, as he dredged up every last detail he could from his memory. "And it wasn't anything little, either. This thing was powerful, and evil. I think I was even starting to get a little scared." He paused to think, and after a moment, he finally sighed. "That's all I can remember."

Tomoyo looked pretty concerned.

Eriol looked somewhat skeptical.

Sakura looked downright frightened.

Li picked up his chopsticks. "So, what do you think?" he asked, popping some rice into his mouth.

"I'm really not sure," Eriol shook his head. "Sakura-san, what was your dream." But when he looked over at the young Card Mistress, he was startled to see that she had gone nearly white. Her hands were clenched into fists in her lap. "Sakura-san?"

"It was the same, except I was by King Penguin," she said shortly, not lifting her eyes. Suddenly, nobody wanted to talk much. The conversation pretty much died; from that point on, lunch was a silent affair as everyone privately pondered what it could all mean.

* * *

With a sigh, Sakura let herself fall backwards onto her bed. She was relieved; another day was over, and she was free for the night. Sleep sounded inviting. For some reason, she was exhausted.

"Oi, Sakura!"

Okay, maybe sleep wasn't really an option. Kero was here, after all.

"Nani?" she murmured, rolling over onto her side. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with him full force, so she opted for letting him yell at and lecture her back, rather than her face.

"Did you figure anything out about that dream?" the Guardian Beast demanded. There was a small amount of pressure as he lighted on the pillow next to her head.

She closed her eyes. She had known he would bring that up, no matter how much she didn't want him to. "Not mine. But I found out Syaoran-kun had a dream too."

"Oh? What was his about?"

"He can't remember either most of it either. But what he could remember was almost exactly the same as what I could remember from mine."

Surprisingly, there was silence. Sakura could almost feel Kero's surprise.

Finally, he spoke. "Sakura…I don't think you realize how not good this really is," he was speaking softly, which made her realize that he meant it. He was being serious, and that happening tended to signify a big problem on the horizon.

Now curious, she sat up and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"If it was just you, I might be able to accept it," Kero explained; his eyes were closed, and there was no sign of his usual energy. "But the gaki doesn't forget. He doesn't dream often, but he doesn't forget. And the same dream, remembering the same parts? No, Sakura, this isn't normal. And it's not good."

"But what does it mean?" she persisted.

"I don't know."

The conversation was interrupted when Sakura's cell phone rang. She was beyond grateful for the interruption, and immediately jumped up to answer the call. "Hai?" She listened for a minute. "What do you mean, I don't—" She stopped. "I understand. Are you sure?" Another pause. Kero strained his ears, but he couldn't hear anything from the other end of the line. Suddenly, she burst out, "You can't!" Silence again. "Okay. But don't go alone. I'll be there in five minutes." She pushed the button to turn the phone off, breaking the connection.

Kero waited expectantly for some sort of explanation, but none came. Instead, his teenaged Mistress began running around, grabbing an assortment of things: her jacket, first, into the pockets of which she shoved her phone, her house keys, and the book in which lived the Sakura Cards.

"Sakura, what's going on?" Kero asked, but he was ignored as she ran around.

Finally, she threw her Star Key out in front of her, and the magical circle flared on the ground around her as the key began to glow.

_Key which hides the power of the stars  
Show your true form before me  
I, Sakura, command you under our contract  
Release!_

In a flash, the key stretched itself out into the wand, and landed neatly in her outstretched hand. Her mission apparently accomplished, she ran out of the room, nearly knocking the door from its hinges by the force of her passing.

"Sakura!" Kero zoomed after her, catching her just as she was halfway out the door. He managed to dive in front of her, stopping her momentum. "Oi, what's going on?"

"That was Syaoran-kun on the phone," Sakura explained hurriedly, as though she didn't seem to think there was time for explanations. "There's something going on. If you want to help, go get Yue-san and meet me at the park, okay?"

With that, she ran past him; he literally bounced off her shoulder. Kero watched his Master take off at top speed down the street.

"At the park?" he repeated softly. Wasn't that where the dreams had happened? Suddenly, Kerberos had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen. All he could do was hurry.

* * *

It was a clear night, complete with an enormous moon and billions of stars. By that simple, natural illumination, Li Syaoran could clearly see around the park. It was the same as always—the playground equipment stood tall and proud, in stark contrast to the slightly waving trees that encircled the park.

His eyes shifted back and forth with a hawk's glare. One was not a Li without learning the ability to see things that the average person would miss, and being able to use that knowledge. Furthermore, their senses were trained to the highest possible use. Almost nothing could escape the scrutiny of a Li.

And right now, Syaoran's senses were screaming. Every fiber, every nerve was alive with tension. There was something out there, lurking, waiting, watching. Waiting for him. Watching him. And whoever or whatever it was had shields up. They had magic, and they were trying to hide it. But the shields themselves were borne of magic, and they made the air tingle with a feeling that was almost electric.

A twig snapped, and he jumped back, spinning to face the direction the sound had come from. It was closer than he had thought. And he saw something—something silver disappearing into the trees.

Without really thinking of any except finding out what was going on, Syaoran began to run. He gave chase, dashing through the trees into the small forested area that surrounded the park. But whatever he was chasing was faster than he had thought, and he soon lost it. He couldn't even find a trail.

Syaoran slowed to a walk, then came to a stop. He was standing below an opening in the treetops, a spot where the moon shone through to the ground, bright as day. It was like standing in a spotlight.

Somehow, that wasn't a very comforting thought right now.

His hands tightened around the handle of his sword. Something was out there, and he wasn't going to let it get away again. If he could only find it. But he didn't want to make himself an easy target, like he probably was right now, standing in the circle of moonglow.

He was a Li. They were taught to be fearless. But no one at that moment, in that situation, could have possibly been completely unafraid. Every tiny little sound seemed to be amplified a million times over as it reached his ears; he jumped at everything, something he normally wouldn't do. One hand fumbled for a moment before his fingers finally closed around an ofuda. He had never before wanted to just turn tail and run as much as he did at that moment.

And this all felt strangely familiar. Like he had gone through this before. But how? He didn't generally spend a lot of time in the forest around the park. The swings were still one of his and Sakura's favorite talking places, but otherwise, they really didn't frequent even the park itself much anymore. So why in the name of Clow Reed would this seem—

Syaoran's blood froze. This had been his dream.

He took one unconscious step backwards. There was no way he could handle this on his own. Sakura had to be here by now. Together, they could easily wipe this thing out. It was okay. He just had to get back to the playground, and it would all be fine. Strange, though…he couldn't sense anything at all. Normally, he could just sense Sakura or the plushie without even thinking about it. Now they were nowhere to be found. It was almost like there was a shield thrown up between them, or something…

That thought fled his mind as he heard a rustle behind him. And the air prickled with suppressed power. His eyes widened as the magic was suddenly let loose, at what he guessed to be nearly full strength. And it was close—too close.

Li Syaoran spun around—and barely had time to scream.

* * *

Kinomoto Sakura skidded into the park, Star Wand in hand. Syaoran had said that he would meet her there, and they would see what was up. But to her surprise, she didn't see him anywhere. Normally, this wouldn't bother her a whole lot, but right now, it was night, and Kero's warnings about the strange dreams were still fresh and clear in her mind.

But then reason decided to come back from its lunch break and go back to work. Syaoran was trained and disciplined, but he did have an occasional tendency to be a bit impulsive. Chances were that he'd gone off on some tangent somewhere, maybe trying to chase something down. He would most likely be back soon, she would chastise him gently, and they would get down to business.

So everything really was okay, but the more she looked around, the more difficulty she had in believing that. King Penguin loomed nearby. Usually a simple piece of playground equipment, at that moment he looked menacing, foreboding. She shivered inwardly, but quickly steeled herself. She wasn't a kid anymore, and she was the Card Master. Why should she be scared of a slide?

But so many things had happened in this park. From capturing Clow Cards to the strange situations that had led her to change the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards, Penguin Park had been the site of many a magical occurrence. That slide had seen more than most normal people.

A breeze brushed past her, scooping up a few dry leaves from the ground and making them dance as they floated by. And suddenly, the air leapt to life. It tingled with restrained magic. Someone nearby had extreme power, and it wasn't an aura she recognized. She glanced all around her, searching frantically for any sign of life or movement.

A rustle in the trees caught her eye, and she spun in time to see something vanish into the foliage. She didn't get a very good look at it, but she thought it was silver. She waited, but saw nothing else.

And it dawned on her that she couldn't sense any presences. Not Syaoran's, not Kero's, not Yue's, not even Eriol's, and his was pretty hard to miss, now that he wasn't hiding it all the time. Why couldn't she find any of her friends? What was going on here?

She was more and more beginning to doubt her plan to come here alone. She had expected Syaoran to be there, but she should have thought things through a little better, something she had never been very good at doing. Maybe she should have brought Kero with her…Yue probably would have sensed what was happening and come on his own. Or maybe she should have called Eriol before she left. He could have gotten there in record time… Actually, that was something she still could do. She had stuffed her phone into her pocket, just in case.

She pulled the small pink cell out and dialed a number she had long ago memorized. Slowly, she pressed the phone to her ear and listened as it rang. Once…twice…three times.

Finally, someone picked up the other end of the line. "Hai?"

Sakura almost had to smile. "Nakuru-san, is—"

"Sakura-chan!"

The Card Mistress held the phone a few inches away from her ear to save her eardrums from being ruptured. She sometimes forgot just how loud Akizuki Nakuru could be when she got excited. Gingerly, she eased the phone back against the side of her head and spoke into it again. "Nakuru-san, is Eriol-kun there? Please, it's important."

"Awww…" the cherry-eyed Moon Guardian sighed in disappointment. "Yeah, he's here. Hang on, I'll see if I can drag him out of the library. I think he said he was reading a new book about medieval torture. Something about needing new ideas to use on your little boytoy or something like that." Sakura made a mental note to smack Eriol. There was a sound, like a door opening. "Hang on."

There was the sound of conversation—Nakuru high pitched bubbling, Eriol's slightly calmer tone, and finally, he came on over the line. "Sakura-san?"

She could have screamed with relief. "Eriol-kun, I don't have much time," she dropped her voice to a whisper, glancing nervously around. The air was getting heavier, and the feeling of wrongness was growing. "Come to Penguin Park. Now. As in put the book down, put being evil on hold for a little while, and run. I need help."

"What's wrong?" he sounded concerned. She could hear noises in the background; it sounded like he was running already.

"I'm not sure. But there's something here. Just hurry."

"I'll be there in five minutes or less, or the next one's free," he joked, but his voice was serious.

"Arigatou."

A push of a button ended the connection. She pocketed the phone and heaved a sigh of relief. Help was on the way. All she had to do was wait for Eriol to get here, and Syaoran to come back—

She paused halfway through that thought. Where was Syaoran, anyway? She'd been here for a decent amount of time, long enough for him to have come back a dozen times. What if something was wrong? What if something had happened to him? What if—

A yell pierced the night air, making her jump in midthought. At the same instant, the magic that had been prickling in the air suddenly peaked, as though someone had let loose their power, and then it vanished again, as though once again dampened.

She spun to face the direction from which the sound had heralded, but she saw nothing. There were no further sounds; the cry had only trumpeted for a couple of seconds before being cut off, and the sound had almost instantly faded into the night, leaving only the silence of the grave.

Sakura gripped her wand so tightly that her knuckles began to ache. What had she seen? Where was the magic coming from? And where was Syaoran? She didn't like being alone, not in this kind of situation. And why did this feel so strangely familiar…it was like déjà vu, she had experienced this somewhere before…but where…

Realization hit, and she gasped. _Just like the dream…what I remember of it._

She couldn't remember exactly what was to happen, but she knew that it was nothing good. And the more she thought about it, trying desperately to recall what would become of this, the more sick she felt. Whatever would happen tonight, it wasn't good.

There was a was a sound nearby—the rustling of tree branches and bushes as something moved amidst them. Then something flew through the air, flying right at her. It was moving fast, fast enough that she had to literally jump back out of the way. It missed her by a scant few inches, landing with a loud crunching sound on the ground beside her.

She instinctively grabbed a Card and held both it and her Star Wand out in front of her, ready to defend herself against anything that might decide to attack her. Her eyes landed on the thing that had nearly crushed her, the missile launched from the nearby bushes.

For a minute, it didn't register what it was. But finally, her eyes were able to discern the crumpled mass. Her brain didn't seem to want to work at first. But realization came in a flash as she noticed an object on the ground beside the heap. A familiar object.

She dropped both Card and Wand; the latter clattered against the pavement as it struck the ground. Her hands flew to her mouth, barely getting there in time to stifle the heartwrenching shriek that tore out of her mouth. She stumbled backwards in a panic, but she tripped and ended up falling flat on her back; still she dug her heels into the ground and pushed, in a frantic effort to put more distance between herself and the heap on the ground before her.

Her hand flailed, feeling desperately along the ground for her Wand. She kept her other hand clapsed tightly over her mouth to prevent much more sound from escaping. But her voice had become almost incapable of producing anymore noise. Finally, her hand bumped into something, and she quickly grabbed it, feeling the narrow pole of her Star Wand against her palm.

But her eyes remained glued to the horrible sight before her. Her hand dropped away from her mouth a few inches, enough for her to stammer a single audible word.

"S-Syaoran-kun…" Her voice cracked on the last syllable as the first sob broke through.

It was. Li Syaoran, in his traditional robes, sprawled in an untidy mess on the concrete; his sword was on the ground beside him. The blade was spotless, and it looked like he really hadn't had a chance to use it. Sakura ran to his side and rolled him over onto his back. He was covered in blood, most likely his own; a thin trickle of blood was running from one corner of his mouth down his chin. His eyes were half open, and staring blankly towards the sky.

Waves of nausea slammed against her; she felt sick to her stomach. The sobs came harder now, uncontrollable. She pulled him close, heedless of the blood, and cried and cried. Her heart wasn't broken—it was annihilated, smashed into a billion miniscule pieces that no amount of time or healing would ever be able to pull back together. Her partner, her friend, and her love—gone. Stolen away from her by something that she didn't have a name or face for.

It was reaching far beyond the unfair. Was this punishment for something? Had she done something so terribly wrong that she was condemned to this? She really didn't know. All she could really do was let her heartbreak and grief pour out in a seemingly endless flood of bitter tears.

But finally she lowered the lifeless body to the ground, taking great pains to lay him out carefully, with the dignity he had always been so careful to safeguard while he had been alive. She took one more look at his face, feeling her shattered heart attempt to keep beating, and then raised one hand and gently lowered his eyelids over the unseeing eyes.

Still crying, she rose to her feet and looked around through watery eyes. Where had the bastards gone? She knew they were still nearby, but where were they hiding? And why was this situation so horribly, terribly familiar to her?

Suddenly, she remembered. It hit her in a flash, like lightning. Why she remembered it then, she didn't know, but it didn't matter. She knew. She _knew._

This had been the rest of her dream. Down to almost every detail.

Which meant…

Too late to do anything.

A white light erupted behind her; she whirled, already knowing what was coming.

This had been her dream, her vision, her foretelling. She had foreseen her own death. And now here she was to face it. Alone.

The light shot towards her. There was no time to run or to defend herself. Even if she tried, she doubted it would do any good. She knew what would come of this.

She was engulfed by the blinding whiteness in a heartbeat. But there was something that hadn't happened in the dream—pain. There had been pain in the dream, but nowhere near this level. This was mortal agony. The light was flames, a white-blue blaze, swallowing her whole. It seemed to meld with her flesh, melting into her, like a wild animal devouring her alive. Even the air in her lungs burst into that white-hot fire. Time stretched out as her perception of it was skewed. A second ran into a century; they were one and the same, and the pain seemed neverending.

Sakura heard an unearthly sound then. A terrible, high pitched sound, like the last screech of a fallen angel. After hearing it for a moment, though, she came to a frightening revelation: the shriek was being torn from her own throat. It was _her_ voice, letting loose that unholy scream.

And a voice broke into her mind, through the haze. _:Farewell, Card Master.:_

She didn't have time to respond; she barely even had time to process the implications of those three words, forced into her mind. The light vanished; the fire went away. But the pain remained.

Kinomoto Sakura fell, ending up in a heap on the cement. She could feel herself bleeding.

Crumpled on the ground, she pushed herself onto her back; even that small amount of movement cost her so much pain. But she could see the retreating backs of their attackers. She could barely make them out, though, through the red haze that had clouded her vision. She couldn't even give any description of the figures she saw leaving. A part of her was surprised that they had left, but another part didn't seem bothered. Their mission was undoubtedly accomplished. Why bother hanging around?

She could hear other footsteps as well, but these were thundering towards her, not away. But the people causing those footsteps were out of her range of sight. She didn't know who it was.

"Sakura!"

"Sakura!"

"Sakura-chan!"

"Sakura!"

Four different voices called her name. She recognized each of them, and her heart dropped a little more with each voice.

Kerberos—in his full form, judging from the depth of the voice.

Yue.

Tomoyo.

Touya.

They were all here. And this was how they found her—a bloody heap, huddled on the ground, unable to move without pain like liquid lightning searing through her.

She hissed in pain as someone gathered her up and pulled her tight against them. She forced her eyes open, and saw her brother's face, looking down at her. His coffee-brown eyes were frantic with worry and fear. Beside him, Kero-chan, with a similar look of panic. Tomoyo, crying. And Yue, who actually looked frightened. She had never seen her somber Moon Guardian like that…

"Onii-chan…Kero-chan," she said each of their names in a voice hoarse from crying and screaming; the words felt strange, like they were being physically forced from her throat. Speech was difficult. "…Tomoyo-chan…Yue-san…"

"We're here, we're here," Touya shushed her; his voice cracked.

"They—they killed Syaoran-kun," Sakura felt another sob rising, but she didn't have the energy to let it out. She was tired, so very tired.

Tomoyo let out a little cry. Without thinking, she fell to her knees and slid one arm under the lifeless shoulders, pulling the unmoving form closer. She just had to look at him to know it was true. He was gone. One of her best friends was already gone. And the other…

The other was dying.

"Sakura, what happened?" Kero demanded. "Who did this?"

"Not…sure…" she gasped. "I didn't…see anything, and…I'm tired." She closed her eyes; it was so much easier than trying to keep them open. "I'm really tired…sleep…"

"NO!" Yue's voice yelled at her. She felt someone take her hand, and she lifted her eyelids just enough to see who it was. It was, indeed, her Moon Guardian, his usually expressionless face twisted into a rictus of worry and fear. He was holding one of her hands tightly, as though maybe by holding on tightly enough he could keep her there.

Her eyes fell shut. "But…I'm tired…Yue-san…I'm really tired…I'll just sleep for a little…while, that's all…I promise…just…a little…"

"No, no, no," Yue insisted; she could feel his hand shaking. Nearby, Tomoyo was sobbing.

Something warm and damp fell onto her cheek. She forced her eyes to open, and saw that it was from her brother. Touya was _crying. _Sakura had never seen her onii-chan cry. Her brother was too tough to cry. Yet here he was, sobbing into her hair, holding her as tightly as he could. And she didn't even feel the pain anymore. She was almost entirely numb.

"Onii-chan," she started, but suddenly, her tongue took on a life of its own. She didn't control the words that came out of her mouth. "This isn't goodbye forever."

Those gathered around her stared at her.

"Things will be difficult for a while, but you have to be strong. It won't last forever. This is goodbye, but only for a while," Sakura intoned as her vision waivered. She could see a light floating above her. It was so beautiful, so very beautiful.

"What do you mean?" Yue demanded; his voice actually cracked. He had lost one Master, one he loved, and now he was about to lose another, one he had come to love. It was almost too much to deal with for the Moon Guardian…

Sakura's eyes took on a peculiar shimmer to them—a distant look. "Ten years."

Kerberos was frantic. "Ten years? Ten years what?"

"Ten years," she repeated calmly; she couldn't say anything else. "Ten years. Ten years." That was all she said, growing softer with each repetition, until finally her lips moved, but no sound came out. Her eyes fluttered closed. The hand Yue held clenched into a fist, then relaxed, and fell limp in his grasp. Her chest rose; the breath held, and she shuddered as she let it out. There was no further movement.

Touya gave his sister a shake, sobbing, crying her name, but it was to no avail.

Kinomoto Sakura was dead.

A few yards away, Tomoyo was cradling the body of Li Syaoran. They had both been taken, her two best friends. She held the unmoving form close and cried.

Footsteps came thudding closer. No one looked up as three figures came sliding to a halt beside the group of mourners. One normal-looking person, a second, taller person with butterfly wings, and a third creature that looked remarkably like an enormous black panther, also with wings sprouting from its back.

Eriol had opened his mouth to say something, most likely something containing a large number of curses, but the words died on his tongue at the sight before him.

Li Syaoran. His traditional robes blood-soaked, his head hanging at an extremely unnatural angle, and a thin trail of blood running from one corner of his mouth. His eyes were closed, and Tomoyo was cradling his head, sobbing as though her heart was broken.

And Sakura. Equally blood drenched. Sprawled lifelessly in her older brother's arms. Touya was crying. Kerberos was crying. Yue's back was turned, his hands clenched into fists at his sides; it was doubtful that he was crying, but everything about his posture suggested misery.

"What…happened?" Eriol said in a strangled voice.

"We don't know," Yue was the one who answered, surprisingly enough. His voice was strained in a way strongly reminiscient of the day Clow had died. He was still kneeling on the ground, one of Sakura's lifeless hands still held in his own. "We got here, and they were both…like that."

Kerberos took over; he more than anyone sensed that Yue was actually reaching a breaking point. "Sakura was still alive, but the ga—Li was already dead."

Ruby Moon started to cry, and Spinel hung his head.

"So…no one knows what killed them?" Eriol asked. He suddenly felt very faint.

Kero shook his head mutely.

"She said something before she died," Tomoyo hiccuped suddenly. "Sakura-chan, I mean. But it was strange. It didn't make sense."

"What did she say?" Eriol demanded. For the first time in all the time that anyone there had known him, he looked…well, lost. Confused. As though he really didn't know what to do next. And chances were that he really didn't.

"Ten years…" Touya murmured, holding his sister closer.

It would be the last time he would ever do so.

* * *

**AN:** Candyland looks around eagerly Well, what did you all think? Good so far, bad so far? What, what? Tell me, I want to know! And remember, this is only the FIRST chapter. That means that there's a lot more to this story then just what happened. So don't kill the author just yet!

Well, I think it only fair to tell y'all that this is more of a **teaser** than anything else. I'm up to my elbows in my other fics, and I don't like to have more than one major fic going at the same time. Yet right now, I've got _three._ So…yeah. Let me know what you think of my first chapter, pretty please, and maybe, just maybe, I'll update again within a reasonable amount of time.

Actually, before I make that kind of promise, I think we might need to iron out a clear cut definition of 'reasonable.' I spent over two weeks on this chapter alone. Then again, I hadn't expected it to end up being anywhere near this long! Whew! Also, let's consider something: I go nuts if I don't update for too long.

I have a vague outline of what will happen in the coming chapters. Yes, I tend to outline my fics. Otherwise I completely lose track of what's supposed to happen or what needs to happen, and then I go crazy…er... But I still take suggestions, thoughts, ideas, and constructive criticisms. **Anonymous flames** will be used to keep warm, as I live in Iowa, and we're due for a blizzard this weekend.

Wow, this was a long, rambling author's note. Is anyone still reading this thing? If you are, congratulations! You win the fabulous prize—I'll email it to you as soon as I figure out what the fabulous prize is, though. It might take a while…

Until next time, wuvs! Ja ne!


	2. An Unkind World

**AN: **_:stares in awe:_ Wow…I got reviews…and they're good ones, too! Whee! You guys ROCK!

Well, now that the stage has kind of been set, we can get to the really good part. Heehee. There's a hefty deal of exposition in this chapter, but it's all really important. The real stage of the story is set here, so pay attention! There will be a quiz!

I'm trying for much longer chapters than my average fic, though I'm not sure how that'll go. prays And for those of you who may be new to my stories, I sometimes tend to have quite long author's notes for no real reason. Please bear with me. I sometimes explain important stuff up here. Key word: sometimes :)

I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura. I'm just borrowing these characters. And I'm just borrowing the song from which the title is taken. But the title fits the story, so no worries there. Promise. But the plotline is mine, all mine! You hear me! IT'S MINE!

On we go...

* * *

**Chapter Two—An Unkind World**

It was gray.

That was the simplest way to describe everything. The sky, the buildings, the people. It was all shades of gray. At least, that was how it seemed sometimes.

Amidst this overwhelming grayness, a young man walked alone. He was silent, and seemed completely indifferent to what was going on around him. This was a deceptive appearance, though. A false front. In truth, he was probably more alert and more aware than anyone else out there. His dark eyes shifted back and forth every few seconds, and every sense was on fullest alert.

He had reason to be exceptionally cautious, though. After all, he was a wanted man.

He had been a wanted man for nearly a decade now, and yet he was still free. To many, it would seem a miracle that one with such a reward on his head would still be walking the streets.

But Kinomoto Touya wasn´t free because of luck. He was intelligent, and he was surrounded by people who were for the most part smarter than he was. Protections had been worked out long, long ago.

They could look for him all they wanted. They could search high and low, tearing Heaven and Hell apart in their quest to find him, but even if they stared right at him, they would never see the face of the one they so desperately wanted to destroy. They would see the face of an older man, one who looked absolutely nothing like their quarry. An illusion.

Touya had actually had one of them look him straight in the face, and then walk away, completely oblivious to who he had been looking at. Although relieved that he hadn´t been discovered, it had been one of the most nerve-wracking moments of his life.

Still, it was dangerous to be out and about, in case something should happen. Which was why he was on fullest guard, and in a hurry. The sooner he could return to the relative safety of the hideout, the better. He pulled his dark coat around him a little more tightly and quickened his pace a bit, though he was careful not to start walking too fast. That might draw suspicion, and the Guards were out today. There seemed to be more of them as of late.

The people on the streets gave the Guards plenty of room, steering carefully around them when one had to go anywhere near them. In general, though, it was usually considered prudent not to come within twenty feet of the Guards. Those Guards that walked the streets were especially known for their brutality, and it was best not to draw their attention.

After all, the Guards were a part of _them._

_They_ had attacked the day after the deaths of the Cardcaptors. _They_ had no real name, or if _they_ did, _they_ weren't sharing it with people. But _their_ brutality and heartless cruelty had led many to simply dub _them_ the Slayers.

Details had been extremely sketchy at first, but a lot of time and a lot of digging had revealed that they were in fact an organization that spanned the globe. A secretive society of magicians and sorcerors in their own rights, they had been lying in wait for a long time, gathering and consolidating their powers to fuel their mage-born armies. And the rest of the world was blind.

Hell, most of the rest of the world didn't even know that true magic existed.

It was perfect. The plan was simplicity itself—to take over. Perhaps a cliched plan, but the Slayers were dark magicians. They craved power, authority, and domination.

But there had been one—or rather, two—things in their way, that they knew of. The Cardcaptors. The Card Mistress, and her equally powerful partner.

Naturally, they had known of the release of the Clow Cards nearly two decades before. They had been around that long. And they had been monitoring the progress of the young Cardcaptor through the captures, the Final Judgment, and the changing of the Cards.

By the time they had accumulated enough of their power to mount their attack, the two teenagers had almost entirely come into their own magic, and were learning how to use it quite effectively. Their execution had to be carried out carefully. As Clow Reed's heir, the girl was definitely a force to be reckoned with. And her partner was almost as powerful.

The assassination had gone off without a hitch. Divide, and conquer. Even the most powerful sorcerors were not above making mistakes, some more fatal than others.

The Slayers had been thorough. They knew nearly everything, but even as thorough as they had been, there was one crucial thing that they didn't know of, or understand: Hiiragiziwa Eriol.

They knew he had magic, powerful magic. But nothing suggested that they thought he was anything other than a great sorceror. They didn't know that he was in fact the reincarnation of Clow Reed.

That information was priceless and worthless at the same time. But those who still dared to resist were in no hurry to let the bastards know the truth.

There had been other crises arising in the wake of the takeover. Murder and kidnappings were commonplace events as any and all resistances were crushed. After one particularly bloody massacre two weeks after the takeover, most decided it was best to simply accept the inevitable and try not to attract any attention to themselves. That slaughter had taken place just outside Tomoeda.

That was another thing, a cruel joke. The Slayers had selected Tomoeda as their base. Their Headquarters towered over the rest of the town, as an awful reminder of what had once been there.

A small group, seething over the brutal murder of their friends, had fled. They were hiding out just outside the town, shielded by their own magic, and living by their wits. They were the one resistance the Slayers had failed to quell, mostly because they couldn't find them. And having physical descriptions didn't help much, either. They were rarely seen, opting instead for more invisible attacks.

Life was hard. There was no way around that. Especially for that group of fighters.

The worst and most difficult problem to deal with had been Yue. As the Guardian of the Moon, he needed the power of his Master to survive. But with his Master's death, he had started to fade almost immediately. It would have been a slow process, but the result would have been inevitable. He would have disappeared forever.

In an act of selfless desperation, Yue had agreed to be sealed again. The stoic Judge was sleeping somewhere deep within Yukito's psyche, waiting for the day when there would be someone to support his powers. But until that time came about, Yue would sleep, locked away inside the mind of his own disguise, blissfully unaware of the amount of time that had passed or of the events that had taken place in that time.

Touya paused in front of a shop and glanced in the window. He wasn't really looking for anything in particular, just glancing around. There was nothing really of interest in the shop window except his reflection. And that kept his attention for a moment.

He looked young. It was hard to believe that he was technically thirty five years old. But he had a friend to thank for that as well. He looked exactly as he had ten years before, save for a long scar running down his jaw, and the stress of years written in faint lines on his face.

Eriol's magic was the reason. Right after…_they_ had died and the Slayers had taken over, they had been forced to flee, and the reincarnation of Clow Reed had worked a spell to essentially stop them from aging. Touya, Eriol, and those who fought alongside them had been frozen at the ages they were when…_they_ had died.

Even after all this time, Touya still could barely bring himself to say his sister's name. He couldn't even think of her. Or the kid, for that matter. He didn't know why the brat's death had affected him as much as it had, but the effect was the same.

It had been nearly a decade since that terrible day. And still the nightmares persisted. He couldn't count the number of times he had awoken during the night, drenched in a cold sweat, calling his sister's name. And the nightmare was always the same: she would be lying dead in his arms, but then she would start talking, asking why he hadn't saved her, why he hadn't been there.

Sometimes he wondered if it would be easier to just give in, give up. Surrender. They would be killed. He knew that already, all too well. The Slayers tolerated no one going against them. Death would be the penalty, quite possibly on the spot. But then he could leave, and be free of this once and for all.

Sometimes he wondered if he was losing his mind.

He sighed and shook his head. He couldn't stop until those bastards were gone, a task that could very well take him the rest of his life. But he had to fight. He owed it to them.

Touya stopped and leaned nonchalantly against the wall of a building. The wall was made of bland gray stone, and the cold of it seeped right through his jacket, sending chills up his spine.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and pretended to look around for a moment. Then he glanced over. There was someone standing just around the corner, mere yards from him. This man was a far cry from Touya; this man was far more dangerous looking, with a filthy brown coat and a lit cigarette held between two fingers in one hand.

"Anything new?" he whispered to a man around the corner.

"The rewards on yer heads are up again. 'bout three times what they were at first," the seedy looking man hissed back; a slight drawl in his voice reflected what was most likely a country heritage. He took a drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke into the air. "They're gettin' desperate. With each thing yer guys pull off, the people get more and more restless. Yah've got the support of the people, and the bastards know it. And they don't like it."

"Huh," Touya murmured, allowing himself a tiny smirk.

"They want yah dead," the man continued. "They've been trying to get people to talk, but even if somebody knew where all of yah were hiding, nobody'll betray yah and yer people."

"Good to know we've got fans," Touya jested, though his tone was far from jocular.

"They know why yer doing what yer doing," the dirty man tapped his cigarette with one finger; a small shower of gray-white powder rained from the tip of his cigarette to the ground. "And they're behind yah a hundred percent, even though most of 'em are scared to death to get involved. Yah bring these bastards down, yah might very well be made a king."

"God forbid," Touya rolled his eyes. "I don't want to be a king. I want things the way they were. I'll settle for that. But I'd better get moving before either of us gets in trouble. Arigatou."

"Take care of yerself," the seedy man flicked his smoke to the ground and turned; a moment later, he had disappeared further into the alley.

Touya remained where he was for a moment. So the rewards had tripled. That meant the Slayers were beginning to get worried. Good. They'd have to strike again, and soon, just to make sure things were kept off balance. He would have to bring this up when he returned.

But that would happen later. There were other stops to be made.

Though few were willing to become actively involved in the fight itself, there were many who would put out the smaller risk of gleaning what little information they could and passing it along to those who could make the best use of it.

A certain street vendor relayed the increase in reward as well, and recounted that there were Slayers from all over arriving in Tomoeda for some sort of meeting. A shopkeeper informed him of increasing numbers of kidnappings and disappearances in town, but knew little else about it. However, a schoolteacher Touya knew produced far more information: those who had disappeared were people reputed to have been labeled as having some kind of magic. The Slayers kept very close tabs on any who possessed even magical potential.

The bits and pieces of information that he gathered were small and fairly sparse. But any and every little tidbit could be vital, and was treated as if a holy relic.

After his conversation with the teacher, he returned to the street, senses back on fullest alert for any signs that he was being watched and/or followed.

Touya began walking with renewed purpose. It was time to head back to their hideout, away from the city. They were waiting for him there, and waiting for the information he had gathered while out.

His teammates. His friends. And his fellow fighters. They were all he had in the world.

He hadn't seen his father in years, not since right after…_they_ had died. And he had to desire to. It wasn't that he really didn't want to see his father, but more a matter of necessity. Someone had most likely made the connection between Kinomoto Fujitaka, a respected teacher, and Kinomoto Touya, infamous revolutionary. It was enough for Touya to know that his father was still alive and well, and would most likely remain that way for quite some time.

The Slayers were smart. There were some people within communities such as Tomoeda that commanded a large amount of respect from the people. To kill any of those people would result in severe unrest amongst the people, moreso than there was now. And Kinomoto Fujitaka was one of those people. He had enormous respect for his profession, and the loss of his children, either by death or circumstance.

Touya missed his father dearly, but any contact with him would put them both in severe danger. So he had to make due with simply watching over his father from afar, and doing what little he really could to further ensure his father's safety.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he momentarily dropped his guard. In the moment he lapsed, he was run into. Someone collided with him.

He stumbled forward from the force of impact, then spun around; instinct took over, instinct gained over a decade of fighting, and he raised a fist, half dropping into a fighting stance. But he froze when he saw who had rammed into him.

It was a small someone. A child. A girl. Wearing a red cloak with a hood to protect her against the chill. He couldn't see her eyes beneath the shadow of her raised hood though; only her chin and mouth were visible. And her mouth was moving, forming words that he could barely hear.

One of her hands reached up from the scarlet folds of her cape and gripped the sleeve of his jacket as she spoke. "Help me, please. Please. They're after me. Onegai. You have to help me, please." She sounded almost resigned, though, as if certain that nothing and no one would save her from this fate.

Touya froze. He didn't know why, but he felt strangely compelled to help this strange girl. Making a split second decision, he grabbed her hand and dove into a nearby alley, pulling her along behind him.

"Get out of the way and keep quiet," he hissed, shoving her towards the wall. She didn't argue

Touya fell into a fighting stance, silently waiting for what he already knew was coming.

Voices approached. They were here.

As the first one came into view, he struck, nailing the first soldier right in the back. His hand made contact with a sickening crunch, and the poor dumb bastard fell to the ground where he lay unmoving.

Hands and fists flew. Touya had been through this scenario thousands of times; the kind of soldier that got put onto street guard wasn't the brightest, and they weren't intelligent enough to think through any kind of strategy. So really, it wasn't even much of a challenge, as long as he avoided their weapons. Magical weapons, capable of killing just about anything they hit.

He heard a small scream, and whirled in time to see one of the soldiers hit the girl. Hard. She fell backwards, right into the wall, and slumped into a heap on the ground. She did not move.

"Kuso…" Touya cursed under his breath. Of course, he didn't quite know why he should really be all that concerned. She was the one who had dragged him into this mess. But there was no time to worry about her. He had enough on his plate at that moment as it was.

One of the soldiers charged at him head-on, apparently figuring him for helpless. The idiot. He knew nothing. To think that someone as seasoned as Touya would be defenseless.

The fool.

And Touya proved it with a deadly accuracy that had made him infamous amongst the Slayers. It was also part of the reason he was a wanted man with a hefty price on his head.

Beneath the sleeves of his jacket were hidden his secret weapons: two small knives in trick release sheaths. A slight hand movement was all it took, and the first knife landed in his palm.

With no betrayal of his intentions, Touya flicked one wrist. He'd had much practice with these, and there were few who could best him at this particular weapon. There was the faintest sound of displaced air as the missile flew; then the Slayer in question let out a yell, jerked backwards, and tumbled to the ground. The small knife was sticking out of his chest, perfectly aimed for a heart shot.

But there wasn't time for victory. He heard a loud yell behind him. Touya whirled as the Slayer's weapon came down, aimed at his head for what would surely be a death blow—

—but it never made contact. It was knocked to the side by another person's staff. That same staff came back up in an arch, catching the offending Slayer right in the jaw; the hapless soldier was sent flying backwards, into one of the buildings flanking this alley. He slid to the ground, and did not move again.

Touya looked up at the staff's wielder. "Were you worried?"

"You're never late," Hiiragiziwa Eriol replied, tossing his famous Sun Staff from one hand to the other. "Naturally, we were concerned. And here, I find you in trouble. How typical."

"Shut up," Touya shot back. It was a good natured banter, though. In the years since the death's of the Cardcaptors, they had all become quite close friends. After all, who else were they going to rely on?

Under his own spell, Hiiragiziwa still looked eighteen years old. But like Touya, there were still visible signs of the pressure of the past decade. All of them had felt the pressure, and all of them were showing it quite clearly, though they remained physically youthful.

And his magic was still as strong as ever, as he was about to prove.

"Move it!" Hiiragiziwa called, raising his staff. Touya leapt back, out of the way.

The soldiers jumped back, and most of them turned to flee. They knew of this man's reputation, and none of them really wanted to see if it was true. But it was too late. The axe fell.

Without another word, flames surged from the sun that topped Eriol's wand. Within an eyeblink, the golden flames surrounded the hapless soldiers, and engulfed them. Seconds later, the fire vanished, revealing no trace that anyone else had been there. The ground itself wasn't even singed by the fire.

"And that's that," Eriol finished, recalling his staff; it seemingly vanished, but in actuality simply went back into its key form, which he prompty returned to the safety of his pocket. It was dangerous to be seen with that thing. The Slayers knew it, and if they saw it, they would undoubtedly try to kill whoever was holding it. Not that Eriol would let them get close enough to try—his magic was as solid as ever—but it was just a hassle he really didn't need at that moment.

"Arigatou," Touya breathed. He moved to the first Slayer he had killed and yanked the blade from the soldier's chest. He casually wiped it on the soldier's clothes, making sure it was spotlessly clean before turning his attention back to Eriol. The other blade remained in its hiding place, on the underside of his wrist, hidden by his sleeve.

Eriol shot a questioning look at his friend. "What were you doing back here, anyway? Did they jump you or something? Surprising. They usually don't notice you. You don't stand out much."

"Actually, no. They were after someone else," Touya suddenly remembered the girl that had unwittingly dragged him into this unnecessary fight. "Speaking of which—"

He stopped as he saw the small figure crumpled on the ground, several feet away. It was hard to miss her, actually; that vibrant crimson cloak was impossible not to notice.

And in this world, ruled by monsters, getting noticed was not a good thing.

"You got dragged into a fight by a kid?" Eriol said. "Not like you."

"She was running, rammed into me on the street, and begged me for help. I didn't have time to really make a decision. They were already there," Touya shrugged.

"Well, we'd better get going," Eriol nodded, letting the subject go. "They'll be here soon."

Kinomoto started to follow the reincarnation towards the back of the alley, but stopped. He didn't know why, but something was compelling him to go back.

"What's wrong?" Eriol was asking.

Making another decision, Touya turned and walked back over to the unmoving form on the cold, hard ground. She hadn't even twitched. They must have thrown her into that wall with a lot of force to knock her out like that.

"Kinomoto, come on!"

Touya ignored him and grabbed the child's shoulder with one hand; he rolled the kid over onto her back and onto his other arm, pulling her up a little closer. She was freezing.

But as he did that, her hood fell back.

A strangled gasp reached Eriol's ears; it sounded like a half sob, half scream, torn forcefully from a masculine throat. He spun and ran back over to where his friend was hunched over the unconscious girl.

"Nani—" Eriol stopped in midsentence as he stepped behind Touya and looked down at the girl's face. The reincarnation let out a gasp and stumbled backwards a step. "It can't be—"

When Touya said nothing, Eriol leaned forward again and took a second look. If anything, it was more frightening then the first. It confirmed what he had originally thought.

The face was pale and delicate. She was quite pretty, though adorable was probably a much better word to describe it. Long lashes rested against the pink cheeks; she was probably a little flushed from exhertion. Her face was framed by a few long locks of auburn hair, while the rest was much shorter. If her eyes were open, both men had the feeling that they would be a heavenly shade of green.

Eriol was the one who said it, as Touya's ability to speak had temporarily been taken from him.

"Sakura…"

As if hearing the word had brought her back to herself, the girl's face contorted for a moment as she seemed to struggle with the idea of consciousness. But finally, her eyes opened.

They were bottomless pools of emerald.

And right now, they were staring up at Touya and Eriol with a mixture of confusion and fear. "What…" she pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around. "What happened?"

"The Slayers were after you," Touya said softly; he was only now finding his abilities of speech. "You took a pretty hard blow to the head. Do you remember anything?"

She frowned in thought for a minute, then slowly shook her head. "Iie…I think I remember running, but the last hour or so is a blank." She looked more confused now than ever. Then she apparently noticed that the two of them were staring at her, wide eyed and slack jawed. Her eyes narrowed. "Nani?"

"Sakura…" Eriol murmured, not taking his eyes from the girl.

Her eyes nearly doubled in size, and she pushed herself to her feet, pushing away from them. She gaped at them both with a horrified look on her face. She pointed at them with one trembling hand. "You—you said the Forbidden Name! That's a Forbidden Name!"

"But—Sakura—"

"Don't call me that!" she screamed, taking another two steps back, moving further away from them. "They'll kill me! Don't ever call me that!"

Touya stared in shock at this girl—she looked exactly like his sister had when she was ten years old, so he figured that's how old she was. She looked identical to Sakura. But the way she was acting…his sister had never behaved like this. So frightened, suspicious, apprehensive. Untrusting. And the emerald eyes were dimmer than her's had been. They lacked that innocent light, but they had something there. Something familiar…but it was faint, like the last dying ember of a once-roaring fire.

Suddenly, she turned and bolted, heading for the exit to the alley.

But though Eriol was old in mind and experience, his reflexes were sharper than nails. A quick flare of magic was all it took to place himself in the girl's path. She stumbled backwards in shock, opening her mouth with the obvious intent to scream.

But Touya acted first. He clapped a hand over her mouth, and grabbed one of her arms to stop her from fleeing. If she made too much noise or got out of the alley onto the street, the Guards would come faster. Undoubtedly, they were already on their way.

Suddenly, Eriol's snapped around. "They're coming. I sense them." Sure enough, Touya could hear the all too familiar clattering of Guards coming their way.

"We have to get out of here!" Touya hissed over the girl's head. She was screaming against his hand, but the sound was severely muffled; she was struggling. He pulled her a little tighter against him to try and keep her still for a minute. "Do something!"

"Hang on," Eriol growled back. He closed his eyes, and the magic circle flared around the two men, plus the girl in Touya's grasp. Though neither of them saw it, her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates at the sight of it.

A bubble of power enveloped them, and in a blink, they were gone. A few seconds after they vanished, half a dozen Guards came thundering into the alley, only to find it empty.

* * *

By Eriol's magic, they were outside of town in an eyeblink. Their feet touched down on hard packed soil, rather than concrete. 

Once they were safely outside the city limits, and for the most part safe from the watchful eyes of the Guard, Touya let the girl go. She stumbled to the ground and immediately spun around to stare at them as she continued to move backwards, putting more space between them.

"Who are you?" she demanded, clutching both hands together in front of her heart; she was shaking violently from head to toe. Her eyes darted back and forth between them, wide with obvious fear. "What do you want from me?"

"We—" Eriol started to say, but stopped. She wasn't really listening. She was too frightened to listen. And to make it worse, tears were streaming down her face. It was heartbreaking.

Making a quick decision, Eriol sighed. This wasn't something he would normally do—one did not just go poking into other people's minds without permission—but at the moment, it was the only option he saw. He reached out not physically, but with magic. The girl's mind was completely unshielded, and she was too scared to notice anything amiss. It made it incredibly simple to touch her mind, harmlessly putting her into a deep slumber.

She felt it at the last second, but it was too late; it wasn't like there was much she could do about it at that point. Her eyes widened even more for a split second. Then they fell closed as she swayed back and forth for a few seconds before just falling over.

She would have hit the ground if Eriol hadn't caught her.

"What did you do?" Touya demanded quietly. He wasn't angry just yet; he was confused.

"She's sleeping. That's all," Eriol replied, looking down at the small figure slumped against him. Her face was still flushed and tear streaked, but her breathing had already evened out, and she looked far more peaceful than she had been a moment ago. "Nothing we can say would have calmed her down. This was the only way."

Touya was silent for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "Are we taking her back?"

"That was my plan."

Silence fell for another long minute. Then Touya broke the silence again. "Eriol, is she—I mean, she looks just like—could it be?"

"I don't know the answer to that. Not yet," the reincarnation said softly. "That's why we're bringing her with us. The part that has me the most confused is that she doesn't know who we are. I am Clow Reed's reincarnation, and I have many of the memories of his past life. But she doesn't have a clue. If it was really her, I'd think she would at the very least remember you, or feel some connection to you."

Touya looked as though he was going to say something, but Eriol cut him off. "I know what you want to think. I know. I want to believe it too. But we can't. Not yet." He looked down again at the unconscious girl leaning peacefully against him. "Patience, my friend. We all have to be patient."

To his surprise, Kinomoto smiled. "Maybe our patience is finally paying off. Maybe this means it'll all be over soon."

"Could be. Could very well be," the reincarnation smiled back. "We should get going."

"Give her to me," Touya stepped forward. "I'll carry her."

He easily scooped the small, still form up into his arms. She weighed next to nothing! He looked down at her for a moment; then, to Eriol's surprise, he actually chuckled, though it was a chuckle without mirth or even good humor.

"Has it been ten years already?"

* * *

**AN: **Whew. Another chapter done. There. The stage has officially been set. Now we get to go to the really fun stuff. Whee! 

I'm usually a pretty fast updater. I've been told that by many a person. But this fic is taking longer than most of my others. The first chapter alone took me over two weeks. So I'm not going to make any promises about how often I'll update. Gomen nasai, but it's finals week, and Candy-chan is ready to collapse because she has a total of five papers, three presentations, and five tests in the space of two weeks. So…yeah. groan complain Is it Christmas yet? _:puppy dog eyes:_

Actually, I probably won't post again before we leave for winter break—i.e., next week. And while I will hopefully get some writing done over break, I most likely will not update again before I come back to school. Gomen ne, but that's the way it'll probably be _:sniff:_


	3. Kita

AN: singing I wish you a Merry Christmas, I wish you a Merry Christmas…a little belated, but hey, who says you can't have Christmas year round? Heehee, I love this season!

And lookie, lookie, I posted! I had some free time over break, so I decided to try and get some nice updates ready for everybody! This one didn't quite get done, but hey, it's up now! Enjoy. I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura, and I don't own the title song of this fic. Well, la dee FREAKIN' dah! Isn't that SPECIAL!

* * *

**Chapter Three—Kita**

"Where have you two been? I was worried sick—ohmigod!" 

Eriol bit back a small chuckle at the reaction.

But it was pretty funny for Tomoyo—calm, collected, controlled Daidouji Tomoyo—to react like that to much of anything. It wasn't often he could surprise her like that.

But she did have every reason to be surprise. Her outburst had come the moment her eyes had fallen on the small figure lying unconscious in Touya's arms.

Tomoyo reached out and brushed away the girl's bangs with a shaking hand. "Oh my god…she looks exactly like…oh my god…"

Touya shook his head. "I know."

She looked up at him with a fierceness almost bordering on anger. "What the hell happened?"

"We found her," Eriol said; he sounded tired. "She ran into Touya, begging for help. The Slayers were after her. Long story short, we had to grab her and use magic to teleport out of the city. When we got out of town and let her go, she freaked. Wouldn't listen to anything we tried to tell her. So I used magic again, to put her out for a while so we could bring her back here."

"Eriol—" Tomoyo started in a warning tone.

He quickly spoke again to defer the situation; even after all this time and all they had been through, Tomoyo still had a power no one else had: she could scold him as much as she wanted. "She'll wake up soon, I promise! Nothing permanent. It's like she's just taking a nap."

He visibly quailed under her penetrating gaze, but breathed an immense sigh of relief when she nodded. "All right. Then let's put her in a bed, and then we can talk."

Touya brushed past them, and up the stairs. Their hiding place outside the city of Tomoeda was quite a piece of work: it was truthfully a fairly large house, but illusions had been cast so that anyone who didn't know better would simply see a run-down old hut, unworthy of even a second glance. But behind the walls of that old lean-to was a fairly comfortable home.

Everyone there knew exactly how much they really owed to Eriol. Basically, it was because of his magic that they were able to live as they did. Actually, it was pretty much due to Eriol's powers that they were still alive, period. And it had taken a lot out of him at first to put the illusions in place. He had slept for nearly an entire day after performing those spells, and he had eaten like a starving man once he had awakened, but fortunately for everyone (especially Eriol), those kinds of illusions were the sort of spell that, once in effect, took only a minute amount of magic to maintain. Once they were set, Eriol didn't really even have to think about them; they practically stayed up on their own.

Kinomoto breezed down a hall and into a room that he knew to be vacant. They had…lost a person two weeks earlier, and this room was now empty. Much as he shuddered at what could be considered an ill omen, he laid the girl out on the bed. He suddenly felt a strange pang at what had once been a familiar action. Especially during his sister's days as the Cardcaptor…she had always been so worn out then, trying to first catch and then change the Cards while still keeping up normal appearences…

He brushed away the brief feeling of reminiscence. Pushing memories like that aside was something he had become quite adept at doing in the past decade. Brushing them away for him was as easy as brushing dirt from one's clothes.

After making sure that she comfortable, he straightened. _Hmmm…_ he paused for a moment, then carefully removed the scarlet cape still wrapped around her, stashing it in the closet. She would probably have a use for it again. Hopefully soon.

With one last glance at the girl, he stepped back out of the room, and pulled the door closed behind him. It shut with a click, seperating him from the small, unconscious form slumbering on the bed.

He stayed by the door for a moment, though he didn't quite know why. But he heard nothing, and had to conclude that he probably looked like an idiot standing there like that. And he dropped his hand from the doorknob and headed back towards the stairs. His friends and fellow rebels were most likely waiting for him. Tomoyo for sure would want the full story, and eventually, the rest of the team would want to know exactly how he and Eriol had happened upon a child who looked so much like one they had lost so many years ago…

But one thing still bothered him. He only realized this as he was descending the stairs. But it was an important something, and the more he thought about it, the more it troubled him.

He still didn't know this girl's name.

* * *

It didn't take terribly long to explain to Tomoyo exactly what had happened. And when they had finished, she was silent for a long, long time. She folded her arms, and let her eyes fall closed in thought.

Eriol and Touya both knew better than to try and disturb her. So they simply waited, and after a moment, her violet eyes opened, and she turned a measuring look on the two men in front of her. "So you basically kidnapped her, and you wondered why she wouldn't calm down to listen to you? You probably scared her half to death!" She rolled her eyes and harrumphed in exasperation.

The two young men actually looked meek. But that was Tomoyo for you—two of the most infamous and feared men alive in the world of the Slayers were squarely under her thumb.

"Gomen ne…" Touya murmured.

"Gomen nasai…" Eriol said sincerely.

The three aspects of the entire Resistance team were represented by the three sitting there. Eriol was the sorceror, Touya was the physical force, and Tomoyo was a good deal of the common sense, as well as a front. Daidouji Toys was still around. Certain aspects of life hadn't changed. Children still had the opportunity to play on rare and valuable occasions.

Daidouji Sonomi was still alive, though she had long since turned over control of her famous corporation to Tomoyo. Mother, daughter, and the family name were too well respected and too well known to be removed easily. This afforded them a certain amount of protection against the Slayers, and put Tomoyo in a unique and valuable position. As a fairly high ranked member of the strict society imposed by the Slayers, she had the opportunity to, on occasion, pick up tidbits of information here and there that she would then pass on to Eriol, Touya, and the other members of the Resistance.

Many a victory had been one for the Resistance because of the bits of knowledge Tomoyo had gathered for them. And being the master manipulator she was, no one had a clue. They knew that someone had to be passing intelligence onto the rebels, but it didn't appear that anyone had a clue as to who it might be, and no one seemed to harbor any suspicions about her activities with the Resistance.

"When will she wake up?" Tomoyo said suddenly.

Eriol replied, "Soon, if she hasn't woken up already."

Tomoyo stood. "If you don't mind, I think I should be the one to handle this. I'm fairly sure that she won't have a very strong desire to see either of you two right now. I'll try to explain things to her. Hopefully she won't hate you."

Though the words were somewhat jocular, there was an undertone to Tomoyo's voice that reflected that, to a certain extent, she was quite, quite serious. She turned and headed towards the stairs, leaving those uncertain words hanging in the air between them.

* * *

_She was swimming. At least, that's what it felt like._

_She tumbled and spun through a multi-colored void, filled with every shade of every color the mind could create. But she was not afraid. She had seen dreams like this many times before. She could only wonder what this one would bring._

_As always happened, her feet touched something hard, and she landed easily. Her eyes opened, and the scene around her came into focus. She was outside, and it was dark, apparently night._

_Noises nearby caught her attention. She ran towards them; her heart hammered inside her. There were often repeated dreams, but she had never seen this particular nighttime vision before. She skidded around a corner and came to a stop._

_The scene in front of her was strange, but she had seen some even more bewildering than this in her dreams before. It was a structure of some kind, like a square arch, and there was a figure standing on top of it. She couldn't make the person out very clearly; all she could see was that it was a dark person._

_There were other people on the ground, and even a couple of figures hovering in the air. They seemed to be arguing about something. Their words, loud and emotional, reached her ears, but her mind was incapable of deciphering the meaning behind the syllables. All she heard was a cacophonous jumble of sounds. But she could feel the heavy emotions weighing the air, and she could see the frantic movements and brights lights as some kind of a battle was waged._

_The noise was almost unbearable; it joined with the bright colors and darkness and the movements, mixing and mingling until it was impossible to tell where one sense left off and another began. It was so terribly confusing…_

_And as always, she couldn't clearly see the people. She could see their clothing, but their faces were forever obscured, no matter how close she was. But she took in as manny details as she could, filing them away along with the dozens and dozens of other dreams she had seen in her life._

_The dark figure on the arch-like structure was wearing dark clothes that billowed around him—for she could always tell gender, and she had an uncanny knack for reading things about these people. This one seemed extremely confident._

_There were two people sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. Sleeping. One, a male, was taller, and seemed to be far older than the other, a female. Another boy was on one knee, leaning his weight on what looked like a sword._

_Two figures were floating in the air. Like night and day, one was in black and the other was in white. By their sides were what looked like two large cats—one black, one gold._

_And there was one other person—a girl. She seemed panicked, frightened, and a whole bunch of other emotions that had no real name. But there was an underlying emotion, a rock-hard determination that would take more than her opponent could throw at her to shake._

_But before anything else could happen, the vision faded, and she was left alone in the night. It always happened this way as well. These dreams always cut off right before what was most likely to be the most important moment of the scene._

_She carefully logged away each and every detail into what she thought of as her mental dream file of sorts, a special part of her mind that remembered everything about these dreams. Someday, perhaps, she would have someone to share her dreams with. Someone who would understand them._

_And as always, she fell, fell, fell…_

With a start, she woke up and sat straight up.

She looked around in confusion. This wasn't her room. She wasn't in her house.

She began to shake. She had never seen this place before. Where was she? Had the Slayers actually taken her? Had those two men, her rescuers—and kidnappers, she remembered—been a dream? And if they were merely a figment of her imagination, then the kidnapping must have been a dream as well.

Unless that had been real, and they had been the ones who had brought her here.

But it certainly didn't look like a room where kidnappers would keep a prisoner. It wasn't by any means a hugely opulent room, but it was nicer than the room she lived in at home. The bed was incredibly comfortable. There was a table, a comfortable-looking chair, and two doors, one of which she guessed led to a closet. And the whole room was done up in shades of pink and red—her favorite colors.

Carefully, she eased out of bed; the plush rug on the floor was very soft. Gingerly, she crept around, not yet daring to touch anything. Who knew what might happen if she accidentally broke something or some such other offense? She didn't know where she was, for what purpose she was here, or who had brought her here—though she strongly suspected that it was those two men from the city, whoever they were. But they had called her by a different name—Sakura. The Forbidden Name.

Glancing around, she noticed something laid out on the chair; it was a dress, a simple, blue, knee-length thing with long sleeves. She carefully picked it up and examined it before looking down at herself; she was a mess. Maybe changing was a good idea; she would feel a little more confident about her situation if she didn't look like one of those tramps she had seen lurking in alleyways, filthy and unkempt. And it seemed to be about the right size for her, as though it had been set there just for her.

Making a quick decision, she decided to take a risk, and changed, carefully folding her dirty clothing and, after waivering for a moment, set the folded laundry on the floor by the wall, where there was no rug to get dirty. Then she gave herself another once over, glancing in a mirror that hung on one wall for confirmation. Just as she had guessed, the blue dress fit perfectly. She ran her fingers through her layered hair, trying desperately to comb it into something that hopefully looked presentable. She doubted she was succeeding, but the effort, combined with the new outfit, made her feel a tiny bit more confident about her strange surroundings.

After all, whoever had brought her here probably wouldn't have gone to so much trouble over her if she was a prisoner. And if the Slayers had caught her, she probably wouldn't have woken up at all.

Moving around a bit more, curiousity got the best of her, and she opened one of the doors. As she had guessed, it was a small closet. Her red cloak was even hanging in there, as if waiting for her to take it to be worn again. Someone had gone to some trouble to make sure she was comfortable, she realized, as she pushed the door closed again.

"You're awake."

The sudden voice made the little girl jump a mile and spin around, pressing her back flat against the now-closed closet door. She looked at the speaker with wide, frightened eyes.

But as soon as she laid eyes on the speaker, her instincts stopped screaming at her, and she actually felt herself relax a little. Not much, but more than she usually relaxed when in the presence of a total stranger. She didn't know why, though, and it unnerved her a little.

The person who had entered the room without her noticing was a woman. The first impression the girl got was that this was a beautiful person. Tall and slender, with flawless skin, wide violet-blue eyes that seemed tired, but still sparkled, and long, blue-black tresses that tumbled down her back in a veritable waterfall of gentle curls. She was standing just inside the other door, the door out of the room.

"Daijoubu," the woman smiled, as though reading the girl's mind. "I'm a friend. You might not believe me, but I'm telling the truth. No one here is going to harm you. You're safe here."

The girl stared blankly. Safe? No. Safe was a word almost without meaning under the rule of the Slayers. There was no such thing as safe. It was an obsolete term that people occasionally used to try and comfort themselves in their dire situation. Still, every ounce of her being was telling her to trust this unknown woman, who claimed to be her friend, while everything she had ever learned or experienced was sounding off red alerts at the very idea of trusting a stranger.

Trust or tradition? It was an internal battle that reflected itself on the girl's face, and Tomoyo didn't miss a beat of it. Best to move on, then.

"Would you tell me your name?" the dark haired woman asked.

The girl hesitated a moment. She had never met this person before, never even laid eyes on her. Yet for some reason, she felt a strong connection to her, like a bond between them that had been forged the instant they set eyes on each other. And because of that connection, she felt compelled to answer.

"Kita," she said finally. "Hikari Kita." Then she looked up. "And who are you?"

"Daidouji Tomoyo."

She chuckled as the girl's eyes widened. "Daidouji Tomoyo?" The girl, Kita, vaulted away from the closet door and halfway across the room. "_The _Daidouji Tomoyo?"

"Unless there's someone else out there with my name," Tomoyo replied easily.

"G-gomen nasai, Daidouji-san," Kita said hurried; she looked flat-out terrified.

Tomoyo's skill at reading people hadn't diminished at all over the years, and she immediately took pity on her. "Daijoubu, daijoubi," she said, trying her best to sound soothing. "We're all friends here, so onegai, call me Tomoyo." Kita looked extremely doubtful, and Tomoyo smiled. "Please. No one here is going to hurt you. You don't have to be afraid."

"H-hai," Kita finally murmured after a long pause, though she was still watching Tomoyo warily.

"May I call you Kita?" Tomoyo was at her most cheerful.

The girl nodded. "If you want…Tomoyo-san."

"Kita-chan," Tomoyo desperately hoped the use of the first name would perhaps drive home the fact that no one here was going to hurt her, "Eriol-kun and the others would like to meet you. We should go down and see them now. All right?"

She was silent.

"Come on, it's all right," Tomoyo continued to tell her that. Eventually, she would start to believe it. "They're very nice people, and they were worried about you. So let's go tell them you're okay."

"Ano…" Kita mumbled something she couldn't quite catch.

"Nani?"

"Will…will you be there?" Kita asked in a voice just above a whisper.

Tomoyo almost laughed. "Of course! Where would I go?"

Feeling a tiny bit more confident, Kita nodded. She reached out and carefully put her hand in Tomoyo's proffered one. She didn't know why she felt so strongly compelled to trust this person, this stranger, but she did. It was as if they had known each other for a very long time; there was just that kind of instant connection.

"You can smile, you know," Tomoyo said as they moved out of the room and into a hallway. "A smile is a girl's best feature, after all. Would you smile? Onegai?"

Something about the simple way she asked made that compulsion rise again, and Kita found her face beginning to pull back into her happiest smile, something she didn't have much occasion to display.

Tomoyo nodded approvingly. "I was right, as usual." Kita actually giggled at that comment. "A smile does suit you the best. You should wear one more often."

But the minute they got to the stairs, Kita's smile had disappeared, to be replaced by a more familiar expression of mild apprehension. She was already certain that Dai—Tomoyo-san was safe, but who were these other people? Eriol-kun? Others?

They reached the bottom of the stairs, Tomoyo leading the way. She strolled into what looked like a study or a den of some kind. Perhaps a library. There seemed to be an awful lot of books there. And there was a desk, and a fireplace. It all looked older, and perhaps a little worn, but strangely cozy. And Kita decided that she could come to like this room a lot if given enough time.

"Konnichiwa."

Kita jumped a mile and let out a yelp; she instinctively grabbed Tomoyo's arm in both hands and positioned herself behind the older woman, like a human shield for protection.

A rich chuckle met her ears. "My goodness, you're jumpy."

She followed the sound, and her eyes finally came to rest on the speaker. "You!" she yelped without even thinking, jabbing a finger in the speaker's direction.

Hiiragiziwa Eriol was seated comfortably in his fabled 'Throne of Evil.' His fingers were steepled in front of his face, and his eyes were dancing behind his spectacles. "You do remember me."

Kita unconsciously inched a little closer to Tomoyo, figuring the older woman to be protection.

"Daijoubu," Tomoyo smiled down at her. "Eriol-kun just likes to scare people. But you don't have to be afraid of him. He's actually quite harmless."

One blue eyebrow arched; Eriol looked half amused, half bemused at being described as 'harmless,' considering his record with the Slayers. But he held his tongue. No good would come from pointing that out and further scaring an already terrified child. And her eyes had widened a little as she seemed to realize exactly who 'Eriol-kun' was—Hiiragizawa Eriol, one of the two most wanted men in the world! The Slayers had phenomenal prices on his head, dead or alive.

Instead, he simply said, "I would like to apologize for what happened earlier today."

Kita half-glared at him, still standing half behind Tomoyo. "You kidnapped me."

"That's what I'd like to apologize for," he actually felt compelled to smile at the way she was watching him, like two wild animals staring at each other. Predator and prey, although in this situation, it was impossible to discern which was which. "Touya and I panicked, and we didn't think."

Tomoyo rolled her eyes. "You and Touya-san _never_ think."

Something about the exapserated way she said that made Kita want to giggle again, but she didn't dare. Not in front of this strange man who had snatched her from her home city. Still…he was apologizing. And kidnappers usually didn't apologize to their victims. She was sure the Slayers didn't.

"My…okaa-san," there was a slight pause between the two words, one that neither Tomoyo nor Eriol missed, though neither made a comment, "told me that only the Slayers kidnap people."

Before she could ask, Eriol interrupted. "We're not Slayers, since I'm pretty sure that's what you're going to ask. We are as against the Slayers as is humanly possible."

Kita didn't know why she believed him, but she did. Especially when she remembered the way the brown-haired man had fought them in the alley. That hadn't been simply fighting—that had been the force of anger, of seething hatred, things that had probably been boiling for years.

"Is it all right if I just tell him your name?" Tomoyo asked. This little girl, who looked so much like her long-deceased friend, brought out all of her protective maternal instincts. She got a nod in response, and turned back to Eriol. "Hikari Kita."

"That's a nice name," Eriol nodded. He could already sense that this girl was starting to warm up, but by no means did she trust him. So best to keep things formal for now. "Do you live in Tomoeda?"

"Hai," she nodded.

"How old are you?"

"Ten."

The right age. But she certainly wasn't eager to make conversation.

"Can you tell us anything else about yourself?" Eriol prodded a little further, trying to see exactly how far he could go before she clammed up.

"Ano…" Kita unconsciously twisted the hem of her shirt in between her hands.

Tomoyo cut in suddenly. "You're still scared to death, aren't you?"

The little girl nodded; she looked miserable, and very nearly ready to burst into tears.

"You don't have to be scared," Eriol was suddenly kneeling in front of her, at her eye level. "No one here is going to hurt you. We want to help you. You can trust us."

Kita didn't know why, but she desperately wanted to believe the truth in those dark blue eyes. He was telling the truth, she knew that much. And she somehow knew instinctively that she was indeed safe within these walls, with these people. But instinct couldn't override years of experience. Trust was a gift to be given with Kita, and it was one she was very, very reluctant to bestow.

And she felt that connection, the same kind of thing she had felt with Tomoyo. She had really noticed it the first time she had met him, back in the alleyway when he and his friend had saved her from certain death at the hands of the Slayers. And the more she tried to analyze that strange feeling, the instinctive trust and liking she had for these strangers, the more it frightened her.

Suddenly, she realized they were waiting for her to say something.

She finally gave in to those instincts, and nodded once.

Eriol smiled, and she decided he had a very nice smile. "We welcome you."

Swallowing hard, Kita managed a very soft, "Arigatou."

"Welcome back," a new voice said.

Another woman entered. She had short, dark hair, curled neatly to frame her face, and fairly happy, if tired, brown eyes. "So what's all the fuss about? Touya-san seemed upset about something…" The woman's voice trailed off into nothing as she took a good look at the small figure standing between Tomoyo and Eriol. But…it couldn't be…

"Rika-san, this is Hikari Kita. She'll be staying with us for a while," Eriol said cheerfully, while sending her a look that read 'we'll all talk about this later.' Then he turned down to the girl. "This is Sasaki Rika, another friend of ours."

Rika nodded. "Nice to meet you."

"Rika-chan," Tomoyo took one of Kita's hands, "I think our young friend here is hungry." She glanced down. "Am I right, Kita-chan?"

A nod. Good.

"If you go with Rika-chan, I'm sure she can find you something," Tomoyo said gently, hoping and praying that the child would go willingly. She needed a moment to converse with Eriol privately. "I'll be there in a minute. I need to talk to Eriol-kun for a little while."

Kita looked up at Rika, the apprehension returning to her face. But Rika was one of those people who it was almost impossible to be frightened off, and Kita was no exception. She nodded again, and gingerly grasped the hand that Rika offered her. "Okay…"

She followed Rika to the door, but paused in the doorway and looked back over her shoulder. Rika stopped and looked back as well. "What do I call you?" The question was directed at the sorceror.

"Eriol is fine," he replied, looking a little surprised by the question.

She pondered that for a moment, then nodded. "Call me Kita."

And then she was gone, following Rika to a different room in search of food.

"What do you think?" Eriol said quietly a few seconds after the girl had left.

"She's scared, but I think she trusts me," Tomoyo replied, slowly moving her eyes away from the door through which Kita had exited. "I don't know why, but it didn't take much prodding before she started to open up to me." She chuckled. "But I think you and Touya-san dragging her out of the city like you did might make her a little less than inclined to trust either of you very easily."

He chuckled dryly. "I think we both just panicked. But I think she knows she can trust all of us. She just doesn't quite want to let herself yet. It goes against most things she's probably experienced. So for the time being, it'll have to be you, Tomoyo-san. You'll have to be the one to really reach her. Tap back into those famous people skills of yours."

"I could con, prod, and manipulate Li-kun into actually admitting his feelings to Sakura-chan," Tomoyo boasted a little. "I'm pretty sure I can bring her out of her shell." She paused. "She smiled for me before we came down here. I just asked her to, and she did."

"Interesting…" Eriol murmured.

Tomoyo dropped into the large red chair Eriol so favored, and put one hand to her forehead. "Kita smiles like her, I swear! It's the most unnerving thing I've ever seen. This is coming from someone who lost her voice to a Clow Card, mind you. I saw most of the Card captures, I saw most of the Card changes, I've seen the work of the Slayers, and I've seen you first thing in the morning. I've seen a lot. And this takes the cake, the pie, and whatever other pastries you may have prepared."

"Hmmm…" Eriol murmured, obviously mulling over something. Finally, he spoke again. "It'll have to be you, then, Tomoyo-san. If she trusts you, work with it. We need to find out if she is…"

"I'll talk you and Touya-san up a little bit," she teased. "I think eventually she'll realize you're not really _that _bad. But it will take time. Until then, you might want to avoid pulling a stunt like you just did. Honestly, are you trying to scare the poor girl to death?"

"Gomen ne, Tomoyo-san," he sighed. Then he rose from his chair and strolled to his desk. "I leave her in your most capable hands."

They hadn't been friends for as long as they had without learning how to read each other. Tomoyo saw the statement for what it was, and absented herself, most likely heading for the kitchen to join Rika-chan and Kita-chan. Eriol was left alone.

His expression remained thoughtful for a moment, and then he smiled. He moved behind the desk and slid open a drawer; one hand disappeared inside and withdrew a large book with a decorative pink cover, and a latch keeping it closed. "It has begun."

With one finger, he gently traced letters marked across a gold banner on the front of the book.

_S-A-K-U-R-A.

* * *

_

Tomoyo pushed open the door to the kitchen and strolled in. Rika and Kita were sitting at the table; the girl was busily making short work of what looked like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but she looked up when Tomoyo entered, and smiled a little shyly.

"I'm back," the dark-haired woman sat down opposite Rika. "I know you missed me."

The shy smile broadened a tiny bit.

"That looks good," Tomoyo nodded. "Rika-chan taking good care of you?"

Kita nodded, happily chewing another mouthful.

"I told you I was always right," Tomoyo laughed. "But anyway, now that it's just us girls, we can really talk. Would you tell us about yourself, Kita-chan?" The prodding was as gentle as possible; overbearing questions were a bad idea with someone this shy. Rika nodded, looking equally interested in whatever this child might have to say.

The girl looked up from her sandwich and blushed a vibrant crimson, looking quite embarassed at so much attention. _Just like…her… _It was quite obvious, though, that Kita wasn't used to people paying this amount of attention to her, and she seemed flustered by it.

"Ano…" Kita began slowly. "We think my parents were killed by the Slayers when I was little because I don't remember them at all. I was found just walking around when I was about four. The family that took me in gave me a name and a home. They took care of me until this morning."

"What exactly happened this morning?"

"I was out running an errand for my…okaa-san," there was a slight pause before she dictated the woman who had taken her in as her mother, "and there were the Guards on the streets. I tried to stay away from them, but one of them looked at me and got this really funny look on his face. Then he got some of his friends and they started chasing me down. I don't know why. Maybe I did something wrong…" Her already small voice trailed off into nothingness.

There was a moment of silence, which Tomoyo took it upon herself to break. "You said that a family took you in. Would you tell us about your adopted family then?"

"The Hikari family," Kita murmured. "They had two kids of their own, two boys. They're older than me. I guess you could say they were my brothers. They called me their sister, anyway. And I had my…parents. I called them otou-san and okaa-san, but it was always hard to think of them as my real parents, because we all knew they weren't. But they were good to me. They took care of me. I mean, it's not like I hated them or anything. I really liked them. But they weren't my real family." She looked up at them. "Does that make any sense?"

"Quite a bit of sense, actually," Rika nodded. "So you don't know anything about your birth family? Not even a clue about them?"

Kita shook her head. "I don't know anything. I don't even know where I was born. I've just lived in Tomoeda my whole life. I can't remember anything before I was four and they took me in."

Tomoyo nodded sympathetically as Kita swallowed the last bite of her PB and J sandwich. "Dai—Tomoyo-san, could I go back to—that room where I was before, onegai? I just need…I need a little time."

"Of course," Tomoyo stood up and led the girl to the door. "You've probably got a lot of things to think about. A lot to happen in one afternoon."

Kita paused at the door and turned. She bobbed up and down in a polite bow. "Arigatou, Rika-san. Thank you for the sandwich."

"Of course," Rika smiled back as the two left. Then her smile faded and a look of pained confusion crept onto her face. What was going on here?

* * *

"So what did you and Rika-chan talk about?" Tomoyo said conversationally as they reached the top of the stairs.

Kita seemed to be in fairly good spirits at the moment, because she answered. "Stuff. Lots of stuff. She's really nice, like you!"

Tomoyo laughed. Then she noticed that Kita had stopped smiling. The girl was staring straight ahead through wide emerald eyes. She looked like she had gone at least two shades lighter. Both her hands clutched at the front of her dress, at her heart.

Tomoyo followed her stare to find the object of her sudden fixation.

At the other end of the hallway was Kinomoto Touya. He had changed out of the clothes he had been wearing during the scuffle in the alleyway, as they had ended up dirty and ripped from the fight. He now looked far more presentable, dressed in black—it was a color he wore a lot of. His expression was one of carefully contained shock. And his eyes were locked with the girl's.

For what felt like centuries, nobody moved. Touya at one end of the hall, Kita at the other. Their eyes looked nowhere but at each other. His gaze was stunned, but almost contemplative. Hers was far more apprehensive, almost a little suspicious. But there was something there that even Tomoyo could sense. A broken connection being rejoined, like the final stake being driven into a railroad. And slowly, the look on Kita's face changed from apprehensive to more thoughtful.

Finally, Kita spoke, breaking the burdensome silence. "Kinomoto-san?"

Something flickered across Touya's eyes, but it was gone so quickly that it was impossible to tell if it was even there. He nodded once, and looked as if he wanted to say something, but he seemed to think twice about it, and decided against it.

"I'm Hikari Kita," she continued softly, her gaze shifting downwards towards the floor. "You can call me Kita, if you want."

Touya seemed incapable of speaking. He nodded again.

Tomoyo stepped in, seeing that this wasn't going anywhere. "Touya-san, I think Eriol-kun wanted to talk to you downstairs. Said it was important."

He looked at her, and she gave him a conspiratorial wink so that he'd understand. He half-smiled, nodded, and brushed past, heading down the stairs.

"Does he talk much?" Kita asked as they stepped back into the room where the girl had awoken.

"Sometimes," Tomoyo confided. "It depends. You…" She paused. "You look a lot like someone very dear to all of us. A girl. She died right at the beginning of the war with the Slayers."

Kita perched on the edge of the bed and looked up at Tomoyo with those wide emerald eyes. "I do? Who was she?"

Tomoyo sat down beside her. "You look like Touya-san's sister. His younger sister. She was one of the first casualties of the war. He was always something of an overprotective brother, and it really hit him hard that she was gone. He loved her more than almost anything else. She died ten years ago, and sometimes it seems like he's still reeling from it." Another pause. "Sometimes I think we all are, actually."

To her surprise, a pair of small arms wrapped around in a tight hug. She looked down at the mane of auburn hair resting against her arm. "I'm sorry if I make you sad."

Tomoyo shook her head. "You don't. It was just kind of a surprise for everyone, that's all."

"Is that why he kidnapped me?" Kita said suddenly, turning her head so she could look up at Tomoyo. "Did he and Eriol-san take me because I look like that girl, his sister?"

Tomoyo had to fight to keep from showing her shock. How in the name of the seven mad gods had she already figured that out? It was unnerving. One minute, she was too frightened and too shy to even tell another human being her own name, and now she was drawing frighteningly accurate conclusions from the barest of information. So this girl was a whole lot quicker than she was really letting on.

After waivering for a split second, Tomoyo decided to be honest. "That might be it. But I'll tell you something—his sister's death at the hands of the Slayers is one of the main reasons Touya-san joined this fight against them. He'll never forgive them for what happened, and he's earned quite a reputation, which I'm sure you've heard of. He'll die fighting them, if he has to."

Kita nodded, but didn't say anything else.

Tomoyo took that as her cue to leave. "Well, you have a lot to think about for one day. I'll give you a little privacy." She paused at the door, though. "You are welcome to go almost anywhere you like here in the house. You'll know if it's somewhere you shouldn't go. But if you ever want to be alone, come back to this room and close the door. No one will disturb you unless it's important."

The girl smiled. "Hai. Arigatou." The door closed, and Tomoyo was gone.

Kita fell back, laying across the bed, staring at the ceiling. Her head was fairly well spinning from everything that had happened in the past few hours. She had gone from living with an adoptive family, using a name that wasn't truly hers, to being in a house with some of the fabled names of the Resistance—Hiiragizawa Eriol, Kinomoto Touya…and they were welcoming her cheerfully into their home, or hideout, or whatever it was. All because she bore a resemblance to Kinomoto-san's long-dead sister, a girl killed at the hands of the barbarians known as the Slayers.

Somehow, to Kita's ten-year-old mind, that didn't seem quite right.

Kita's forest-green eyes fell closed, dropping her into the darkness that lay behind her eyelids. She found comfort in that darkness at the moment, when so much seemed to be up in the air. Life was always in flux, and things were never the same two days in a row. When things got really weird, like they were now, she usually retreated into that darkness. It wasn't necessarily safe, but it was hers.

One thing dominated her thoughts beyond all others at the moment. Why did she trust these people? These were the people who had prices on theirs heads. They were wanted, violent, fighters, and if the rumors were true, some of them could use real magic. By all accounts, she should have been fleeing for her life, but she wasn't. She had been taught that trust was not something you just give to a stranger. Yet she felt connected to these people, even moreso when she had been told of the death of the mysterious girl that she so resembled.

"Kinomoto-san's sister…" she murmured to the empty room. "I wonder what her name was…"

* * *

**AN:** Whew, another chapter done. Weird place to end it, but that's okay. I'm enjoying writing this story, but I'm not used to typing this kind of long chapter. But anyway, yay rah, it's done and posted. Whoopee!

Just a quick translation. 'Hikari' means 'light,' and 'Kita' means 'north,' so Kita's name basically translates to 'northern light.' I think it's pretty. But I'm weird.

Also, something interesting: with two chapters posted, I had 13131 words, and 13 reviews. Bizarre…but anyway, thanks for reading/reviewing/whatever! I love you all! Laters!


	4. The Other Side of the Coin

**AN: **…hello:_poke poke: _Anybody still out there? Wow, I don't think I've EVER gone this long without updating a story. Wow…I'm ashamed of myself. Actually, I do have an excuse—the outline of this story was lost due to a severe computer crash. And I pouted. But I re-outlined it this summer, reworked some of it, and now I'm determined to see it through to the end. So I'm going to get back to work on this story.

Again, I'm working towards longer chapters (this is not a good example sweatdrop), and school is starting up again, so my time is going to become very valuable very shortly. I'll still update whenever I have time. Ideally, maybe once a month for this story? Is that acceptable? I hope so.

Anyhoo, if anybody's still reading, I apologize heartily for the delays. So let's go! I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura or the title song. They belong to CLAMP and Jason Robert Brown, respectively. Yay rah.

* * *

**Chapter Four—The Other Side of the Coin**

The twilight made Kita uneasy. It always had.

Twilight was that uncertain time, that gray area. It was not light, nor was it dark. It was in between, the bridge that connected the day and the night. So uncertain.

There was another reason this time of evening made her so nervous. Twilight was when the Guards would begin their rounds. The Slayers imposed a strict regiment and schedule on those they now controlled, and their mage-bound Guards walked the streets every night. And woe to the person who was caught outside on the street after hours.

The Guard was cruel. Few of them were even human. Most were creations, the results of years of work and blood-path sorcery. They felt no emotion, and they heeded no pleas for mercy. Ruthless, heartless, with a taste for blood, and almost no control. It was best to simply stay out of sight.

Every night, this was the time when her adoptive mother would pull her and her two older brothers back from the windows and close the curtains. They dimmed the lights and retreated to interior rooms of their home to wait out the night. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind. They were never allowed outside after night. Truthfully, Kita didn't even know what the moon looked like. She had only heard of it. It was like a story, a fable told to small children, that there was a bright circle of light in the sky at night.

And stars—according to the stories, there were thousands, millions, maybe even billions of tiny dots of light that appeared in the night sky. They were supposed to be beautiful, brightening the sky with even the small amount of light they gave off. Kita desperately wanted to see the stars, the moon. But it was a mere dream. She couldn't go outside once the twilight set in.

As she saw the orange of sunset begin to paint the sky, habit compelled her to jump across the room and pull the curtains closed, blocking the world out. She had enjoyed the brief freedom of sitting on her bed, gazing out the window at the trees. Perhaps she had let her mind wander, for when she had snapped back to herself, the sun was already vanishing behind the horizon.

Now she curled up on her bed, pulling her knees up to her chest, and stared at the white curtain. It was still swaying a little bit from her touch. She shivered involuntarily. She could look out the window now, but habit—tradition—would not allow it.

Everything was so strange to her here. These people…they were kind. They cared. They had taken her in with no credentials whatsoever. The only hint to that she had been given was Kinomoto-san's sister, the girl who had died so long ago. Kita resembled her. Was that the reason?

She sighed. It made no sense. She…she trusted them. And she didn't understand why.

She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she barely heard the tap on the door. But then the person tapped again, and she jumped. "C-come in!" she called, perching on the edge of the bed.

The door cracked open, and Tomoyo's head poked in. "Am I bothering you?"

Before Kita had realized it, she was smiling. "No, not at all! Come in!"

Tomoyo stepped in, closed the door, and took a seat beside her on the bed. "I just wanted to make sure you're all right. You seemed a little…upset after meeting Touya-san. And I know you were already upset after seeing Eriol, so…"

Kita felt herself relaxing. "I'm fine. Really. I was just…surprised to see him again."

She couldn't bring herself to tell Tomoyo the entire truth—that surge of recognition, and the flash of images dancing before her eyes. They were split second, in the space of an eye blink, gone so fast she couldn't even discern what they were. It was as crazy as her dreams, as crazy as her sense of trust in these people she barely knew.

"And what about Eriol?" Tomoyo persisted. "Are you all right with him?"

The girl hesitated, then decided on a half-truth. "I'm not sure. He seems…nice." Again, her uneasiness showed herself in her inability to trust without reason. She couldn't.

And Tomoyo's next statement convinced Kita that the woman had the ability to read minds. "You still don't trust us, do you? Or can you?" The girl's eyes widened before she could clamp down on her reaction, and Tomoyo nodded; one hand moved to the girl's hair. "This, too, will pass. Don't worry."

Kita nodded, believing for reasons she was at a loss to explain. And finally, something broke. "Tomoyo-san, why?" she half-sobbed. "Why are you all so good to me? You don't know me!" To her horror, tears broke through.

Arms were around her in a heartbeat, pulling her into a warm embrace; her face was buried in the soft blue fabric of Tomoyo's sweater. "Shhh…shhh…it's all right. Daijoubu." She sighed. "Kita-chan, you were in trouble, and you asked one of our own for help. Touya-san and Eriol-kun protected you. What were they to do then, just throw you back to the wolves? Never." One of her hands traced little circles on the girl's back. "They brought you here, knowing you would be safe."

Kita nodded. The old battle was waging itself inside of her. Trust versus tradition. She knew she could trust them, but everything she had learned throughout her short life had taught her never to do that.

Trust…

Tradition…

Kita pulled back and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked up at Tomoyo through red-rimmed eyes, and her bottom lip quivered only the tiniest bit as she whispered, "I don't know why, Tomoyo-san, but…I trust you."

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Tomoyo asked desperately. One hand frantically threaded through long blue-black tresses, tugging at them absently. Her face was flushed with panicked anger over the news she had just been given. 

"I'm quite sure," Eriol replied, his tone quiet. "It needs to be done." His hands absently moved over the ornate pink cover of the Book. Housed within this book were the Sakura Cards. They were held almost as sacred relics by the Resistance, and they knew the Slayers would have given half their power to hold the Cards and their power. The book and its inhabitants were carefully guarded.

"Eriol-kun, I don't understand how you can be sure!" she persisted.

He held up the book. "The Cards, Tomoyo-san. The Cards are awake. They're reacting, moving around. The seal has been broken again, which means that the Master has awakened."

Tomoyo's jaw dropped. "But that means…Kita is…"

"I'm sure of it. It's all there, it's just buried so deeply…" Eriol shook his head. There was a thump as he dropped the book back on the desk. "I don't know if anything can bring it to the surface. But the fact remains that I have to do it."

"Eriol…" Tomoyo began softly, her voice a tiny bit unsteady, "there's one other thing I don't quite understand. If she is…then what about…_him_?" It was a question she was almost afraid to ask, and she could not bring herself to say his name.

The sorcerer stiffened almost imperceptibly. It was a dead giveaway that he had completely forgotten about him, the other part of the puzzle. There had been two, the opposite sides of the coin. Without one, the other was all but helpless.

Eriol's expression darkened. "We have to find him. It will be easier said than done, but…" One finger traced over the line of the letters that spelled out the Master's name on the book cover. "They're the only ones. We have to find a way to bring them together, and bring them back."

* * *

It couldn't get any worse, he had decided. 

Kinomoto Touya stared out the window, not because he was at all interested in what lay beyond the window, but because it was the most convenient place to look. He wasn't feeling too well as of late.

"Touya-san."

He sighed. So much for solitude. "You have bad timing."

Tomoyo rolled her eyes. "I just wanted to tell you what Eriol told me a little while ago."

"I'll assume it has something to do with the girl," he said; it was a statement, not a question.

"As a matter of fact, it does concern Kita," Tomoyo told her. "Touya…it is her. Eriol's certain of it. And he says something must be done about it immediately, if not sooner. He's worried." When she got no response, she went on. "Touya-san, we have to find him. He's got to be here somewhere. We need to bring them back together."

Again, no answer. Tomoyo sighed. "I know it's not easy, but it's our best hope. For the world, and for them. It's been ten years, just like she said. It's happening now. I'm not letting it slip away." And she was gone, leaving him alone once again with his thoughts.

So it _was _her…damn. Instead of making things easier, it made them even more unbearable.

She didn't trust him. And he didn't know her anymore.

Damn, damn, damn…

* * *

"She looks just like her," Rika confided sadly. 

Naoko took her glasses off and gently massaged the bridge of her nose. "I can't believe it…"

Word was passing quickly around the compound—news of the child who was a dead ringer, if the pun could be forgiven, for the long-deceased Card Mistress. The gossip had reached the ears of everyone except for the girl in question. It had been made quite clear that Kita was _not_ to know the entire story. She had been told of her resemblance to Kinomoto-san's sister, and that was all she needed to know at the moment. There was no argument allowed on that point.

For some, the news was harder to digest. Those who had been classmates or friends of the Cardcaptor had to deal with memories whenever they glimpsed the reclusive child. It wasn't any help that Kita acted nothing like their lost friend. Whereas Sakura had been bubbly, outgoing, and more than a little trusting, Kita tended to be more withdrawn, desperately shy, and wary of everyone.

Naoko was having difficulties. "Why? Is this some kind of bad joke?" She replaced her glasses on her nose and gave her friend a glare that would have withered weaker people. "They take her away and then pull this kind of garbage?"

"I know, I know…" Rika murmured softly, not at all affected by the murderous Look. "But I talked to Tomoyo. She's worried. If someone sees her and thinks she's…well, the results could be disastrous, and most likely fatal. So Eriol decided it would be best to take her someplace away from Tomoeda, for her own protection."

"Will he take her to the others?" Naoko asked.

"The Safe House," Rika nodded. "The way I understand it, he's already gotten in touch with Yukito and everyone there. I don't know how much he told them, but Touya-san and Tomoyo are going as well." She paused. "Do you think something might be up?"

"Who knows?" Naoko shrugged, brushing aside a stray strand of brown hair. "But I get the feeling there's something below the surface. I just don't know what."

* * *

It was a rare occasion when Eriol went out in the city. He didn't like to anymore, and it was extremely dangerous for him. But he needed to get away from the compound for the moment, just to walk and clear his head a little bit. It was a little chilly out, so he pulled his navy coat a little tighter around him and kept moving. 

Two nights ago, he and Tomoyo had argued about his plan to take Kita to the Safe House. But he couldn't yield on this. It was too important. So no matter how much it grieved him, and no matter how much Tomoyo might be upset with him for it, he had to carry through. Kita wasn't safe anywhere near Tomoeda for the moment.

And there was another reasoning behind this adventure, as well. It was a bare hope, but maybe, just maybe, surrounded by old friends, something would resurface. It was a long shot, but much of the past decade had been spent grasping at straws like that. And sometimes, the most insane of concepts could have enormous payoffs. Nothing was taken for granted.

A simple spell, much like the one he'd placed on Touya, kept him from being recognized. He blended into the crowd with relative ease; nobody gave him a second glance. Few even gave him a first.

It had already been five days since Kita had fallen into their lives, and already, there had been a monumental change. It was Tomoyo's handiwork, he knew that easily. But some of the shyness and distrust had already lightened. Not much, but every little bit counted. They had actually coaxed her into laughter a few times (usually by Tomoyo getting angry and inflicting some sort of damage to Eriol's person), and the music of it filled the house in a way that nothing else could.

But she was still so shy. That kind of shyness was not natural. Had something happened to her? It wasn't unheard of; even at her young age, there were still a plethora of things that could have happened, leaving her with potentially permanent scars. Still, the small amount of progress that had already been made left him with hope. Maybe they would be able to bring her out of her shell yet.

One thing he had noticed: she was considerably warmer towards him. Kita was closest to Tomoyo, by far, but she would actually speak to him without averting her eyes. Was she remembering? Or had she simply accepted that she was safe around them? He wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to drive her away, not that they had finally gotten her to open up even a smidgen.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice a small form darting out from around the corner, out of an alleyway. He did notice, however, when the person rammed right into him. Apparently, the kid hadn't been paying much attention either. The force was enough to knock him to the ground.

"Watch where you're going!" a young, male voice snarled at him before the kid got up and started back on his way with a little more hurry in his step. Without thinking, Eriol got up and followed. He began weaving in and out of the crowd.

It took him a moment, but he caught up to the kid and grabbed his arm. "What do you think—"

He froze.

Two very hard, angry amber eyes glared at him. "Let go of me!" A fist swung at Eriol's head, and he barely had enough sense left to dodge backwards; he felt the air move as the blow missed him by a fraction of an inch. And he was inordinately proud of himself that he managed to not let go of his arm. And one word escaped his lips, almost to spite him. "Syaoran…"

This kid didn't seem too pleased with that, either the blow missing its target or the use of a Forbidden Name to address him. "What the hell is wrong with you? You trying to get me killed? Now let go, or I swear I'll—"

Desperate, Eriol made a split-second decision, and used magic. Just the barest hint, something no one would notice unless they were looking specifically for it. Which he sincerely hoped they weren't. And it was a simple spell: a spell of paralysis. It permitted him enough time to pull the kid into a convenient niche between buildings.

Once there, he dropped the spell, positioning himself between this thus-unknown person and the exit that led back out onto the street. The child glared at him, and it gave him a chance to get a second look, a little better look than the first time around.

It was a shadow from the past. He looked to be about ten or eleven years old—a child, though everything about this person said that he was anything but that. He behaved like someone older, even in the smallest movements. Shaggy chocolate-colored hair hung down over those furious golden-brown eyes. His posture was tensed, and his hands clenched into fists. Neither were good signs.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

"I think I could ask you that question first," Eriol said calmly. It didn't matter that he was screaming inside, getting worked up wouldn't help his situation any. "What's your name?"

The kid studied him for a minute, an uncanny stare. Then he answered, slowly. "You can call me Kenji." It wasn't his true name, but that didn't matter; it was a start. Besides, if he was truly a child of the streets (which Eriol strongly suspected, based on appearances alone), then it might very well be that he didn't even know his birth name.

"Kenji…" Eriol murmured.

"Now answer the damn question. Who the hell are you?"

Eriol could barely keep himself from smiling. "Do you want my real name?"

"What do you think?" Kenji snapped.

The sorcerer allowed himself a smirk. "Eriol. Hiiragizawa Eriol."

The look on the child's face proved that he had, indeed, heard the name, and knew what it implied. He took a step back, eyes widening in something akin to shock. Eriol saw his opportunity, and seized it. He wasn't fond of doing this, but he couldn't let the moment escape. He reached out not with hands, but with magic, into Kenji's unprotected mind.

And he saw…

Kenji let out a strangled sound as he felt the invasion into his thoughts, but there was no time to fight it. _Sleep, _Eriol ordered directly into his soul. There was no resistance; Kenji's eyes slid closed as he fell straight forward—

—into Eriol's waiting arms.

He looked down at the now-slumbering form. The kid, Kenji, didn't look half as tough when he was asleep. In fact, he looked rather innocent, more like the child he actually was. It was surprisingly endearing, Eriol thought, as he shifted the weight and scooped the unmoving figure up. Tomoyo had been right—they were to be brought together.

He returned to the base in a flare of magic, not caring too much if the Slayers sensed it or not.

He already had the sinking feeling that if Tomoyo wasn't too shocked by this new arrival, she was going to lay into him royally for carrying off another child by basic force.

* * *

Tomoyo might have been shocked, but there was nothing that would stop her from telling Eriol exactly what she thought. "What is this? Are you making kidnapping into a hobby now?" she shrieked. They were standing outside a room; within those walls was the newest arrival, the boy Eriol had brought in a short while ago. He was the cause of this uproar. 

Kita was watching from around the corner, eyes wide. When Tomoyo noticed, she turned and smiled. "Kita-chan, could you give us a minute, please? I need to punch Hiiragizawa in the face, and I don't want you to have to see his nose getting broken."

The girl giggled the tiniest bit and obeyed, trotting off down the hall towards the safety of her own room. She wandered these halls regularly now, and just like any child, had occasionally been found peeking around where maybe she shouldn't have been. But no one minded much.

As soon as they heard the door close, Tomoyo rounded on her reincarnated friend. "Now that we're alone, where the hell did you find him?" Her voice dropped in volume, lost most of the angry edge, and took on a slight note of panic.

"In the city," he hissed back. "We ran into each other. Literally." Quickly, he recounted the details of their meeting, and his subsequent subduing of the young man and the return to the compound. "He said his name is Kenji. Whether or not that's true, I don't know."

"But—oh my God…when I said—I didn't think it would…oh good God…" Tomoyo suddenly lost her ability to form a coherent sentence.

Eriol reached out and touched her shoulder gently. "It's all right. We're going to leave tomorrow. Now that we have both…well, there's not much else we can do. We have to get them as far away from Tomoeda as we can." He paused. "I didn't mean to, but I called him Syaoran. He went ballistic. I think it best not to tell them the whole truth just yet, Tomoyo-san. They've been taught never to say those names, and I see no reason to go against that at the present. It'll just make them more nervous."

Tomoyo nodded silently, and Eriol's attention shifted to the only other person in the vicinity—Touya, who was standing directly in the doorway, leaning against one of the doorposts. "And what about you? Are you all right?" A sharp nod. "I know you didn't like him very much, but…"

"It's fine," Touya sighed. He turned and walked away without another word, disappearing up the stairs. They watched him leave passively, and then Tomoyo turned to Eriol.

"Perhaps it would be best if I tried to handle things when he wakes up," she said in the sort of tone that brooks no arguments. "He probably won't be very happy to see you. So would you please leave for a while?" Now she was using a voice that makes a order out of a request. Eriol nodded and obeyed, absenting himself quickly.

As he walked down the corridor, he heard a soft whisper. "Can I come out now?"

He smiled down at Kita, who peered at him a bit apprehensively; she had her door open the tiniest crack. "I think it's safe now. Tomoyo-san has calmed down."

She opened the door a little further. "Is your nose broken?"

He chuckled. "Not quite."

* * *

Where the hell was he? 

Kenji pushed himself into a sitting position the instant he realized that he didn't recognize this place. His first tip-off had been that the surface beneath him was soft. That was in no way normal. His eyes had flown open, and he found himself in a very unfamiliar room.

He unconsciously took a quick mental check on himself. The coat he'd been wearing was gone, and he briefly wondered if his captors had found the dagger. He always carried it, hidden within a secret pocket on the inside of that coat. He was still in his loose white shirt and brown pants. But he had the sinking feeling that he was completely unarmed, and that unnerved him to no end.

What had happened to him? He searched his memory, desperately clawing for those last few moments before the darkness. On the street. A man in a dark coat. Being unable to move. Pulled into an alleyway. He had heard a Forbidden Name, and then…that man.

"Are you all right?"

The female voice nearly scared him out of his skin, and he jumped off the other side of the bed, ending up flat against the wall, one hand clutching for a concealed knife that was no longer there. The tiniest bit of that anxiety melted away when he saw the speaker, but it wasn't enough by any means to make him relax. She was an unknown to him, and as such, was not to be trusted.

Tomoyo smiled gently. "What is it about kids these days? They're all so jumpy!"

"Who are you?" he asked warily. He was keeping himself under careful control until he knew where he was and if there were any escape routes; best not to anger one of his captors, for that's who he assumed she was.

"A friend. I know you won't believe that, but it is the truth," she said calmly. Well, this sounded familiar. Wasn't it only a week earlier that she had said almost those exact same words to Kita? And the effect was the exact same as it had been with Kita: zilch. Complete and total disbelief.

"Where the hell am I?"

"Somewhere safe."

One thing Kenji was known for on the streets was a particularly razor-sharp wit that managed to manifest itself at the most interesting of moments. Now was one of those times. "What, did you go to school at Vague University or something? Answer the damn question!"

Tomoyo couldn't help herself. She laughed. "Oh, you've got spirit!" She calmed quickly and said, "If you must know, you're in one of the Resistance compounds, outside of Tomoeda. You had a small run-in with one of our men, and he brought you here for safety."

Comprehension dawned as the memories finally returned. "Hiiragizawa…" he breathed the name, almost in awe. One of the two most wanted men alive had…kidnapped him? Why in the world would someone as notorious as Hiiragizawa Eriol take a common street urchin? It didn't make sense.

"Why am I here?" he asked, now more dazed then angry.

"Because we need your help, Kenji," she said softly.

Something snapped. This had to be some kind of a lie. A test, that was it. He was being tested. Well, he wasn't going to fall for it. No way, no how. His life was one of the few things that was his own, and he wasn't going to just give it away.

"Forget it, I'm leaving!" he snarled, suddenly furious as he stormed past her.

Tomoyo held out a hand. "Wait!"

But he had already thrown the door open and taken one step into the hallway.

And froze.

Tomoyo moved to the doorway, and saw why he had stopped so suddenly.

Kita had been walking in the hall, and had been directly in front of the door when it had flown open. She must have been surprised at the commotion, because she was leaning back against the wall, both hands clutched protectively at her heart; it was a gesture she often made when surprised or frightened, both common occurrences for one so jumpy. She was watching him carefully, almost in confusion.

But more importantly, the anger and barely-concealed fear had both fled from Kenji's face. Now his expression was one of mild wonder, tinged with that same confusion.

Tomoyo stood silently by and watched their reactions with intent interest. It was intriguing, so very intriguing. This was a far cry from another meeting she could remember…but what was going to happen now?

For a long time, they just looked at each other, unmoving.

Not surprisingly, Kenji moved first. He shook his head rapidly, whirled around, and shoved past Tomoyo back into the room he had awakened in. Without a word, he slammed the door; the force of it pushed Tomoyo the rest of the way out of the room, into the hallway.

Kita straightened up, and she and Tomoyo looked at each other blankly.

"Tomoyo-san," Kita asked softly. "Who was that?"

* * *

Kenji's back was pressed flat against the closed door. He was panting, though he didn't quite know why. He also couldn't explain to himself why he'd just bolted like that. Especially from a girl like that, who had nearly died of fright just from looking at him. 

Of course, that wasn't exactly a new thing. He was used to that kind of judgment.

There was a light tap on the door, and against his better judgment, he turned around and answered it, opening it a mere crack. The dark-haired woman (who still hadn't told him her name) was standing there, and in front of her was the green-eyed girl—he guessed that she was the one who had knocked, judging from her behavior. She seemed shy.

"Umm…" she blushed a little. "I—I wanted to introduce myself, if that's all right." She looked down; it was that wild-animal shyness again. "Kita. Hikari Kita." She extended one slightly-shaky hand.

Kenji stared at her for a moment. She actually wanted to know him? Most shied away…and she was holding out her hand, though her facial expression said she was clearly expecting rejection. And for some reason, he couldn't do that. He reached out and clasped her hand. "Kenji. Just…Kenji."

_"I promise I'll come back," the girl said cheerily. Her outfit was strange, a red and white concoction that probably wouldn't have looked good on many other people. She held out one hand, pinky extended. "Pinky promise."_

_He looked surprised for a moment, then smiled and linked his pinky around hers. And they chanted a promise, a promise that she would return to him safely._

* * *

**AN: **Whew…a slightly shorter chapter, but a chapter nonetheless! Whee! And yes, I know it's painfully obvious, but I still have a lot to go for this story, and there'll be some things that I don't think you'll see coming, so don't bail yet! Please! 

I'm still tweaking my outline, trying to remember everything as I had it. I have no idea when I'll be posting again, but I will continue to work on it. I'm getting back into this story. And hopefully, everyone will continue to read. Thanks! Luvs!

Oh yeah, quick translation note:

_Hikari_: Light  
_Kita_: North (so Kita's name means 'Northern Light')  
_Kenji_: Strong son_ :grin:_


	5. The Safe House

**AN: **Yay! Another chapter! Is anybody still out there? It's not dead yet! My dear buddy **Ciuline Ihmenjo** reminded me (rather vocally) that I'd kind of left this one hanging. Got wrapped up other fics, what can I say? But it's here now, and that's what important, right? Right? Of course.

Just for the record, this one is MONSTROUSLY long. It's the Beast, the mother of all chapters! On the outline, the summary for this chapter was almost two pages in and of itself. And the amazing thing is that three-fourths of it was written in one day, about four sittings. Not bad, ne? So here we go! _(takes deep breath)_ I'm ready, hope you are too! I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura, nor do I own the song that inspired it. Waaaaaah…

_

* * *

_

**The Safe House**

Kenji glowered.

Kita blinked.

Tomoyo smiled, a saccharine grin that belied the seriousness of the manner. "You heard me—we leave tomorrow morning. We'll be leaving early, so you'll want to get a good night's sleep. And," she cut Kenji off before the protests could even begin, "there is no choice in this matter. I'm sorry, but it's for your own good. I'm sorry this is such short notice, but we really need you to come with us."

"Why?" Kenji finally got a word in edgewise, and used that word to snarl the demand at her.

Tomoyo didn't bat an eyelash. "Because if we stay in one place for too long, the chances increase that the Slayers will find us. I don't have to tell you what will happen if they catch anyone here." That silenced any and all protests and complaints. They all knew what would happen.

The Slayers were merciless against any who opposed them. Death was a sure thing; if they were lucky or not particularly valuable, they would most likely have a quick and relatively painless execution. But should they be the carriers of knowledge deemed important or vital, then they were more likely to get a slow, painful death by torture should they choose not to surrender their information immediately. Their secrets would be torn from their very mouths before they were slaughtered.

They were stories that such young ears should not have heard, but in this new world, such was life.

"So we're going where?" Kenji asked quietly, a sure sign that he was withdrawing.

"Will you be going with us?" Kita asked simultaneously.

Tomoyo managed to refrain from sighing. She had been unofficially put in charge of the two children—Kita followed her around like a duckling follows its mother, and Kenji seemed just a smidgen warmer towards her than he did towards anyone else—especially Eriol. Even days later, the former street-boy still glowered and went tense whenever the sorcerer was in the same room.

"The Safe House," she replied. "It's away from Tomoeda. We'll be safer there. Yes, I'm going with you." A smile broke on the girl's face. "And now," a glance at her watch proved that it was, indeed, quite late. "I think it's time for you two to be off to bed. Tomorrow's going to be a very big day, so you'll want to get some rest."

Kita didn't question—she merely moved. Kenji stared at her for a moment longer, features dark with a frown, before following suite and heading towards the stairs. He kept glancing back over his shoulder, watching her warily. She simply smiled until he disappeared around the corner, then her own expression darkened, and she whirled and stalked into Eriol's study.

The sorcerer was seated at his desk, eyes closed. To all appearances, he was sound asleep, but Tomoyo knew better. She stomped right up to the desk and slammed one fist down on it. He jumped and opened his eyes, staring at her with wide eyes; she was one of the few people who could still elicit that kind of a reaction out of him. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"I assume this has to do with tomorrow's adventures." It was a statement, not a question.

"You're an idiot, uprooting them like this. Kita's barely managed to get her feet under her here, and Kenji refuses to trust any of us at this point. You moving him around like this isn't going to help," she huffed angrily, arms crossed menacingly over her chest.

"We need the space and the protection of the Safe House if anything is to be accomplished," Eriol said wearily, in a tone that suggested this was not a new argument.

"That doesn't change the fact that you. Are. An. Idiot!" she accented each word.

"I know it's not the best move, but we have no time left, Tomoyo-san," he rose suddenly and leaned forward, putting both hands on the desk to keep himself steady. "I don't like it anymore than you do, but it has to be done." His expression grew troubled. "I do not relish what I'm going to do, Tomoyo-san. There just are no other options. We're out of time. If this fails…" He straightened and looked down at his hands, as though contemplating them for some unknown answer. "…if this fails, they win."

* * *

Kita's eyes were wide with amazement, and her face was pulled back into a joyful delight unlike anything they had ever seen displayed before on the young face. Beside her, Kenji was trying valiantly to smother a similar reaction—and he was only mildly successful. Even as rough and tumble as the young former street-urchin tended to be, he was still just that—young. And it was at times like this when that youth came galloping through. 

The Safe House loomed over them, an enormous building that was almost Victorian in style, and faintly reminiscent of the mansion Clow Reed had twice occupied during his time living in Tomoeda. Of course, Kita and Kenji would know nothing of this. But it was also quite pretty, painted white, with blue trim and blue shutters, and an enormous wraparound porch. The only homes that would even remotely resemble this were the ones occupied by some of the Slayers.

They called it the Safe House because it was just that—safe. Probably the one place in the world where Eriol was confident the Slayers would not find them. The place was shielded so tightly that nothing could leak through; Eriol could perform his most intense magic here—and he had—and no one had ever seemed to be the wiser. How the sorcerer had discovered this place, none of them knew. But it had served them well in the past, and now it would serve them again.

"Well," Tomoyo prodded, stepping out of the car behind them. "Go ahead. It's safe."

Amazingly, they need no further coaxing, and like the two children they were, they darted towards the house. Kenji's emotions continued to be hidden behind that same careful mask of stone; he hadn't been amidst them long enough to understand the concept of trust, whereas Kita had lightened enough around them (though she retained her wild-animal shyness the instant they were beyond the walls of the hideout).

While the adults remained by the vehicle and pulled the few bags from the trunk, the children were already halfway up the stairs, and finally scampered onto the porch. They both froze when they realized that someone was there, waiting for them: a tall, slender man with amber eyes, gray-brown hair, and a smile that seemed extremely comfortable on his face. Kita, who was slightly ahead, skidded to a stop, and Kenji bumped into her. Both looked up at the stranger. Kenji noticed that the man's eyes widened the tiniest bit, but did not comment.

"Welcome!" the man said cheerily, erasing the surprise from his features immediately. "My name is Yukito. So you're the guests Eriol mentioned when he contacted us." He bent down a little closer to their eye level. "We're pleased to have you here with us."

_Safe House, _Kita told herself, a mantra to give herself confidence. _It's a Safe House because it's safe. And he's Eriol-san's friend. He's not bad. _After repeating it a couple of times, she managed a small smile and a tiny bow. "Hikari Kita. It's very nice to meet you…Yukito-san?" That last was as a question in a tiny whisper, hesitantly asking permission to address him as such.

Yukito seemed completely unabashed by the informality—after all, he hadn't offered his family name, so there was not much else to use. "Kita-chan, and…" he looked expectantly at the other child, who was peering suspiciously over the girl's shoulder.

Kita pointed at the boy. "That's Kenji." The boy tilted his chin upwards slightly in greeting. But there wasn't a chance for her to elaborate; the moment was broken when something small and gold shot up into Kita's face.

"Konnyanyachiwaaaaa!" the newcomer trilled proudly in a bold Osakan accent, one tiny paw thrust triumphantly into the air. It was only then that Kerberos realized his mistake: the visitors the snow-rabbit had been greeting were two children, rather than the expected Touya, Tomoyo, and Eriol. And as such, they would not know about him, that this was normal.

And at that moment, there was nothing on those two small faces, but pure terror.

Two shrieks sliced cleanly through the air, followed by a multitude of thudding noises as Kita and Kenji all but fell down the stairs. "DEMON PLUSH-TOY!" Kita screamed. Seeing no other place that looked even remotely safe, they dove behind Eriol, who had just come to the foot of the stairs that led to the porch. They peeked out from behind him warily.

It was almost comical.

Back on the porch, Tsukishiro Yukito frowned. "Kerberos…"

"What did he do now?" a small black cat with dragonfly wings landed calmly on Yukito's shoulder and peered disapprovingly at his golden counterpart. "We heard screams. Children?"

"Well—"

"What happened?" Akizuki Nakuru's face popped into view, jumping out from behind Yukito. Her long brown hair was swinging behind her like some sort of deranged pendulum. "What's going on? Is Touya here? Is Eriol here?"

"Was that…?" Yukito's already-pale face had actually gone a shade lighter.

"It looked like them…" Kerberos agreed softly. He hadn't even heard the rebukes from his companions. "But…it can't be. They're dead," he finished flatly; his wings drooped a tiny bit.

Spinel Sun frowned. "What happened?"

Eriol's laughter echoed up to them. "Don't the rest of us get a greeting?"

There was a flash of brown and red as Nakuru dove around Yukito, leapfrogged down the stairs, and threw her arms around Eriol, nearly knocking him over on top of the children. He managed to brace himself, though, and stayed on his feet, smiling in spite of the fact that he probably couldn't breathe too well with her arms circling his neck like that.

"Nakuru, may I please breathe?" he finally asked with a semi-strangled chuckle. She released him with a laugh and took a deep breath, preparing to burst into a high-spirited conversation that would undoubtedly be wholly one-sided. But she stopped when she noticed the two small ones, still using Eriol as a sort of human shield.

"Who are you?" she asked, subduing herself in record time.

"Kita…" the little girl mumbled, eyes wide. She pointed with one hand, "He's Kenji."

"I see…well, welcome!" Nakuru went from zero to bubbly in the space of an eye blink. "We love having guests! Come in, come in! Let them get the bags, I'll show you around the house!" And she was off and running again. "And you have to meet everyone, and—"

"Excuse me," Yukito tapped her shoulder. "Calm down."

"Indeed," Spinel flew over, positioning himself between Nakuru and the children. "Please excuse my friend here. That's Nakuru, and she is an idiot, it can't be helped." Ignoring the hyperactive protests, he went on, "I am Spinel Sun. Welcome." He extended one tiny black paw.

After a moment, Kita seemed to get over her initial shock, and carefully took the offered appendage between her thumb and forefinger. "Nice to meet you too."

Yukito stepped around then, revealing he was holding the small golden creature who had so frightened them at the top of the stairs. The being looked extremely subdued as it floated from his hands over to them; Spinel moved aside to let him speak.

"I'm sorry," he said pitiably. "I didn't know you weren't them." A gold paw pointed at Touya and Tomoyo, the latter of whom was trying very hard not to laugh. "I'm Kerberos!" He suddenly erupted back into his earlier brashness, and struck a pose as he introduced himself.

Kita giggled, and took both paws in her hands. "Thank you."

Nakuru finally lost the battle with herself, and dove at them again. In a second, she'd swept up Kita (who looked a little nervous, but did not resist) and Kenji (who looked flat-out terrified and immediately began demanding to be released) and carted them back up the steps across the porch, and into the house. "Come on, guys!"

"We'll get the baggage, so go on ahead," Eriol waved at them. "We'll be there in a minute."

"Spinel-san, Kero-chan!" Kita said, managing to pull one arm loose from Nakuru's grasp to wave at them. "You come too, okay?" And then they were gone—Nakuru had dragged them into the house, crowing something about a tour.

Eriol chuckled, and turned to Yukito. "That's that, I guess. How have you all been out here?"

"Fine, fine…" Yukito muttered, his mind obviously on other topics than such mundane pleasantries and whatnot. He turned a measuring eye on the sorcerer. "But Eriol…that was—"

"Yes," he answered grimly. "And nobody dare say a word to them about it." He bent a little and picked up the bag by his feet. "But let's get these things inside and rescue Kita and Kenji before Nakuru decides to show them one of those old slideshows of some vacations photos or something." Everyone moved to take a bag—except for Kerberos, who was still floating at the foot of the stairs. He was staring up towards the door through which Nakuru had disappeared.

"Kerberos, could you help?" Spinel asked.

"Did you hear that?" the golden creature breathed, almost awestruck.

"Hear what?" Spinel frowned.

"That girl…nobody else uses that except Tomoyo…she couldn't have known…" he shook his head in sad confusion. "So why did she call me Kero-chan?"

* * *

It had taken some time and a little work, but after a full, floor-to-ceiling, attic-to-cellar tour, Yukito and Eriol finally wrested two children from Nakuru's grasp—one was giggling, one was irritated. No prizes for guessing who was who. But now the whole company was nestled into one of the many rooms, while everyone passed around introductions, news, and stories. 

There were others who stayed here, aside from Yukito and Nakuru and the two demon-plushies (as Kita was still wont to call them), but only one had really stayed around them at all: a tall, elegant woman with red hair, who introduced herself as Mizuki Kaho. She seemed to be quite good friends with everyone in attendance, and her quiet elegance made an instant impression on the newcomers—Kita in particular. She didn't say much, but stood in the background and watched; she seemed to know far more about what was going on than anyone else.

Furthermore, Kita realized, she was seeing a different side of a few people. For once, Kenji was acting his age; the rough-and-tumble attitude had actually vanished momentarily, and was replaced by awe at these new surroundings, though the suspicion of these new people remained as strong as ever. But they were the same now, two children dropped right into the middle of something that was beyond their simple comprehension. Whatever was going on was so far over their heads that they would need a ladder to reach it. And no one seemed in any hurry to enlighten them. By some unspoken agreement, they always hung together, though Kenji was still far from comfortable around anyone.

But even more so was Kinomoto-san. Truthfully, Kita had always been a bit afraid of the man who was the Resistance leader, and it was not simply because her first contact with him had been to watch him take out several soldiers and then kidnap her. He never smiled, and all too often, he seemed to be off in his own thoughts, perhaps reliving memories of happier times, when his sister was alive. For some reason, the notion of Touya's sister plagued Kita. She'd had only scraps of information, yet something drove her. She was desperate to know more about this girl who had died so tragically so long ago.

But now—no one seeing him at this moment would ever know that this man was responsible for the deaths of hundreds—if not thousands—of Slayers, who had lost it all, and was now one of the two most wanted men alive. There was not a visibly tense muscle in his body, and he was _smiling_. And _laughing_.

Now the entire crew was in stitches over a rather funny story that Yukito was telling—well, save for Spinel, who didn't seem to be terribly amused. Perhaps that was because he was the subject of the story: it was an amusing anecdote featuring him, Nakuru, and a lot of sugar, or so it seemed.

"…so I come into the kitchen," Yukito was saying, "and Nakuru is dancing around, laughing her head off. There's flour _everywhere_, and Spinel is loudly challenging the refrigerator to a duel with a pair of scissors, screaming something about Don Quixote!" He paused while everyone laughed. "And the worst part is that the cookies never got made!" He smiled, and started to say something else, but froze.

Amber eyes widened in what could only be described as panic, and what little color there was in his face drained from it. In a movement so fast it was but a blur, Yukito whirled and fled the room, nearly knocking the door from its hinges by the force of his passing.

The room went completely still. Finally, Touya stood up and hurriedly followed his longtime friend, though he was a bit kinder to the poor door as he left.

Yukito was hunched over in the hallway, one hand pressed against the wall for dear life, it seemed. The thin, frail-looking body was wracked by gasps; his free hand was pressed to his chest, and beads of perspiration dotted the ghostly white forehead.

"Yuki?" Touya voice rose slightly in alarm, and he took a step closer to his ailing friend.

"He's awake."

Two words that were enough to make Touya stop dead in his tracks. The voice had come from Yuki's mouth, but it was almost too ragged to be his. It wasn't the normal soft, pleasant tenor, but instead a growl that was laden with something that could almost be called pain. It brought back painful memories of those days long ago, when Yukito had slowly been disappearing as the being buried within him had started wasting away.

But finally, the meaning behind those words dawned on Touya, and he thought to question. "Awake? Who's awake?" His blood nearly froze at the answer.

"Yue," Yukito rasped. "The other me. He's awake, and he wants out. He wants out. Now."

"He can't!" Touya shouted before remembering that there were people very close by, and there were a few among those people who didn't need to know about Yue just yet. Carefully schooling his voice to a much softer, much calmer timbre, he went on, "Yue can't come out right now. Ask him to wait a little longer, just until tonight. After dark, when everyone's asleep. He can have all night to run around and stretch his legs." The image that came to mind then, of the somber, stoic Moon Guardian doing anything of the sort, was enough to bring a smile to Touya's face. "There's too many people here now to risk it."

There was a tense moment as Yukito engaged in an internal war, a struggle within that showed itself quite visibly on his face. But finally, a hint of color returned to his pallor, and his deep, irregular breathing slowed and evened out. "He says he'll wait. But the moment the sun goes down, it's no holds barred. I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea."

Touya breathed an audible sigh of relief. Then he smiled—it was still a ghost of his former self, but it was a smile nonetheless. "Ironic, isn't it? There's a full moon tonight." He looked up at the ceiling in thought. "I wonder what that will bring about…"

_

* * *

Kita peered around. "Are you sure it's all right?" _

Tomoyo smiled indulgently. "I promise you, it's perfectly safe. Go on."

The little girl needed no further encouragement. She skipped out of the house, down the front steps, and out onto the grassy lawn. Then she turned and waited impatiently as Tomoyo followed a bit more slowly, and Kenji trailed along after them with his usual indifference.

Since they had a little time before anything "official" was going to happen, Tomoyo had volunteered to take the two young ones around and show them the outdoors. She had correctly assumed that neither of the children had seen anything like the woods before, and so she was going to take them around to explore a bit.

Kita immediately took to the thick grouping of trees, running around and looking at everything. She proved herself to be something of a flower-child: she spotted a small patch of wildflowers, and got down on her hands and knees to look at it further; a butterfly put in a rare appearance, and she followed its movements studiously with a quizzical look on her face.

Kenji was more subdued in his wonder, though the wonder was there. He meandered slowly, looking around at the various trees and plants. He jumped a mile when a bird chirped nearby, whirling around in a near-panic as he fumbled clumsily for his knife. Fortunately, he caught himself and calmed down before he could do any actual harm.

"Hey," Tomoyo said suddenly, leaning down to whisper to the two children, "I think there's a lake around here somewhere. Want to go see?" She threw them a conspiratorial wink.

Kita's face lit up, and Tomoyo again felt a reminiscent pang. Even Kenji's feigned indifference—which poorly masked his curiosity—started the tug of memories once again, of things a decade past.

Brushing off her own feelings of regret and sadness, she led the children through the forest up to the small body of water hidden in the trees. It wasn't anything huge or overly spectacular, but it was quite pretty, and big enough. Kita took to it immediately, like…well, like a duck to water, reaching her hands in and watching in awe at the ripples and splashes she made.

Kenji snorted. "God, you're such a baby."

Tomoyo jumped to quiet him, but it was too late; the damage had already been done. Kita whirled around, tears already shining in her wide green eyes. "But…I…what?" she sounded confused, and her voice trembled as her already-shaky self-esteem crumbled further.

"You're a baby. Do you have a brain in your head?" he snapped. He didn't mean for it to come out so harshly, but this girl was evoking a response in him that he had never experienced before, something he hadn't felt in his short life. He couldn't even put a name to it.

Fortunately for Kita, the situation was not permitted to go any further. Tomoyo stepped between them. "That's enough. We're going back now." As they started back, she scolded Kenji, who really could not have cared less.

Tomoyo vaguely remembered that Eriol had said something about wanting to begin working with the children as soon as possible. But right now, her even temper was flaring. What was he thinking, saying such hateful things? He was as bad as…

As…

She tried desperately to stop that thought before it could really get started, but she was already remembering the one who Kenji so resembled, the one who had been gone over a decade. The boy who had initially been just as hateful towards a girl he had soon come to love.

They got back to the house in record time—without another word spoken—and Tomoyo was no less frazzled. Kenji stormed ahead, up the porch-steps, and into the house without regard for anyone else, brushing callously past Eriol. The two girls were right behind him, though they stopped.

"Did I miss something?" Eriol asked lightly, looking quizzically at the door the boy had just disappeared through. Then he glanced over, and noticed Kita's distress. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure what his problem is," Tomoyo hissed, also looking down at the little girl clinging to her sleeve and sniffling, "but he has no right to take this out on Kita." Quickly, she repeated Kenji's less-than-gentlemanly comments.

The sorcerer looked faintly displeased. "Well, I hate to disappoint him, but I need him here for the moment. You too, Kita-chan. Meet me in my study please." He smiled at the girl, who looked bewildered. Still so very shy…shaking it off, he headed after the elusive boy.

It took but a few seconds before Kenji had been rounded up and somewhat forcibly escorted to the aforementioned meeting place, where he glowered at everyone. "Whaddya want?" Tomoyo remained silent; she had invited herself to observe, and Eriol hadn't chased her out.

Eriol ignored the sass. "I think it's time I explained to you one of the reasons I brought you two here. You see, you both have a gift of magic, and I think it's time that you learned how to use that magic."

"Magic…" Kita began slowly. "Like what you do?"

"Exactly like what I do," he nodded, and she beamed. "Like…oh, this." He held out one hand and formed a sizable fireball, floating above his palm. It wasn't really that impressive, requiring only the barest activation of his considerable magic. Kita stared at it with faint hero-worship in her eyes.

It was Kenji's reaction, though, that was most surprising. The boy's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and he flew backwards across the room, staring at the fire in horror. He looked truly terrified.

"Calm down, Kenji," Eriol held out his hands in a placating gesture. "It's just magic, completely controlled." The boy seemed to take a deep breath and relax ever so slightly.

Eriol sighed with relief. "If you'll have a seat please, we'll begin." In short order, all three of them were sitting cross-legged on the ornately colorful carpet, knee to knee. "The first thing we need to do is find your power. You might be surprised to hear this, but both of you have extremely powerful gifts. It's just hidden deep inside you. We're going to see if we can bring that out, and teach you to use it."

Even Kenji looked cautiously interested as the prospect of being able to do magic. "Will we be able to fight the Slayers with it? Like you do?"

"If you so choose," Eriol nodded, secretly pleased at the boy's question. Kenji really wasn't so difficult to figure out—he was still a child, and when something caught his interest or imagination, it became obvious to the trained observer, no matter how he tried to hide it. "Just like anything, though, there are rules to using magic. If you use too much before you are ready, you could hurt yourself. So we're going to start out small—we're going to find your magic."

"How do we do it?" Kita asked.

It was amazing how every time she opened her mouth, Eriol felt the compelling urge to hug her.

Yet he refrained, and smiled. "Don't be frustrated if you can't find it right away. It might take a while, but I'm going to tell you what to do. Close your eyes." They both obeyed. "Now look down inside you. Look for your heart beating." He waited a moment. "Now look beyond on that, even deeper. Look for something warm and pulsing, that you never noticed before. It might be colored—mine is blue."

There was a moment of silence. Suddenly, Kita whispered, "It's…pink."

"Green…" Kenji breathed, "and warm."

Eriol was instantly relieved. This might be easier than he had initially thought. "Excellent. You're both doing very well. Now, this next might be a bit trickier. Find that power again. This time, you're going to tap into it." When he saw Kita's brow furrow, he hurriedly continued, "Reach down into that power with just your mind. Let yourself fall into it. Don't be afraid—you control it, not the other way around. Feel it around you, a part of you."

He was silent a moment, watching their faces carefully; finally, both of their faces had gone slack, relaxed into what he easily recognized as a trance-like state. "Stay within yourself, but continue listening to my voice," he intoned. It was like hypnosis, really. "Now pull yourself back out of it. Imagine your mind has fingers, and you're pulling it behind you. Just a little bit. Bring it back with you."

And he waited. Both of these two had once been quite skilled in magic-working, one since birth and the other after discovering her own destiny. But that had been so long ago, in another time and another life. Still, he could hope that somehow, subconsciously, they remembered how to do it.

Nevertheless, he was shocked when the two began glowing. Softly at first, then brighter and more pronounced. It appeared around Kenji first—an brilliant emerald green glow. Kita followed suit seconds later, with a pink aura that started out pastel, and darkened into a brighter color.

Still standing quietly and watching from her vantage point in the corner, the auras reflected in Tomoyo's eyes, and she managed to remain silent, observing nervously.

Suddenly, almost simultaneously, their auras flared brightly and vanished, and the two children slumped forward into pint-sized heaps on the floor. Kenji let out a tiny moan, but there was otherwise no sound from them.

Tomoyo was at their side in an instant. "What happened?"

Eriol sighed and rocked back to rest his weight on his hands. "They did it." He smiled broadly in a way that Tomoyo hadn't seen him smile for quite some time. "They really did it. They found their magic, and they brought it out." His smile softened a bit then. "I think that subconsciously they remembered how to do it. They're just out of practice now, is all."

"Wait—you knew this would happen?" Tomoyo asked incredulously, gesturing towards the two unconscious children. Kenji was still moaning a bit, but the girl was silent, having been shifted so that she was slumped against Tomoyo.

"It was not unexpected. In truth, I wasn't quite sure if I really thought they would even find their magic in the first sitting," Eriol said, climbing to his feet. "But the point is that we've already made progress, and that's what counts."

"Eriol," Tomoyo began slowly, "are you teaching them this now because of…?" The thought went unfinished; he would know exactly what she was referring to.

"Yes," he admitted. "Best to learn it now, and work from there later. Now if you'll give me a hand," he carefully scooped up the unconscious boy, who still made little groaning noises but otherwise did not stir at the cautious manhandling, "let's get these two to bed. They've earned it."

"You seem awfully proud of yourself," Tomoyo commented dryly, standing up and shifting Kita so she could get the girl up the stairs.

"I am, Tomoyo-san," he chuckled. "I am, indeed."

_

* * *

_

Upon waking up, both children had been surprised to hear of what they had accomplished.

And they were equally startled when the ever-vibrant Nakuru informed them that there was to be a party tonight, a rare moment of pure fun. When they had gotten word that Eriol and the others were coming to the Safe House, she had insisted that they have a welcome party. After finding out that they had two other guests, it became a celebration for them as well.

An argument ended up breaking out shortly thereafter. Kenji had refused any and all attempts to get him to actually dress up for the event; he acquiesced only to an offer of simple khakis and a black sweater. Kita, however, had proven unable to say no to Tomoyo's pleas, and the startled girl soon found herself whisked away to be decked out like an overgrown doll.

The result was surprisingly simple, by Tomoyo's usual standards, anyway, though perhaps she had toned down her designs in favor of not further-terrifying the girl. A pale yellow skirt that flared out in ruffles at her knees, a pastel pink shirt with (of all things) sakura blossoms embroidered on the bottom of it, and a white cardigan with a dainty floral pattern stitched on in iridescent thread. Simple beige Mary Janes and pale pink hair ribbons around her pigtails completed Tomoyo's ensemble, and when Kita saw herself in the mirror, she seemed absolutely stunned.

"Is that…me?" the girl squeaked, gingerly running her fingers over the stitching on the cardigan, as though afraid it would shatter and fall to pieces if she even looked at it wrong.

"Yes, it is," Tomoyo affirmed, smiling at her handiwork, and trying desperately not to fall back into memories of long ago. Sakura had been her semi-willing victim back then, wearing Tomoyo's oft-outlandish creations for the Card captures and whatever other excuses her camera-wielding friend could come up with to dress her up.

Dragging herself away from the threat of memories that all too often meant tears, she straightened her shoulders and smiled down at her young friend. "Do you like it?"

"Tomoyo-san, you're amazing!" Kita burst. "I've never worn anything this nice before in my whole life!" In the most childlike move Tomoyo had ever seen Kita, she stepped back from the mirror and spun around, just to watch her skirt twirl. Then she stopped and looked up at her guardian. "Tomoyo-san, did you make your outfit too? It's beautiful!"

A bit startled, Tomoyo looked down at her own ensemble—black pants and a purple sweater that had plum blossoms and ornate leaf patterns embroidered all over it in iridescent thread. "I did make the sweater, actually," she admitted. "It's a hobby of mine."

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and Eriol poked his head in. "Are you two ladies ready for this…thing?" He hadn't been horribly thrilled at the initial prospect of a party, given the circumstances, but he had warmed up to it.

"Eriol-san, how do I look?" Kita bubbled, spinning around to model her ensemble.

"Lovely," he smiled, stooping a bit to offer her his arm. "May I escort you?"

It was truly a sign of how much Kita had warmed up to them—she accepted his arm (while Tomoyo discreetly took his other side), and let herself be whisked out the door and down the stairs, where there was music and food to mark the party as being in full swing.

Mizuki Kaho, the red haired woman they had met earlier, met them at the door, offering a welcome. Again, Kita found herself awestruck at the woman's quiet elegance.

Two more people came over to meet them then—a man named Yamazaki, with narrow eyes and a big smile, and a woman named Chihiro, who wore her long hair back in braids, and who seemed to be keeping an extremely close eye on Yamazaki. They were both polite, but their smiles of welcome were tempered with obvious surprise.

As Eriol pulled Kita away from them with a wave, she could have sworn she heard Chihiro whisper to Yamazaki, "Was that…is this one of your pranks?" Yamazaki denied it vehemently. When Kenji appeared a few moments later, glancing around warily, though, Chihiro could again be heard hissing to her male companion questions as to his involvement in this alleged joke.

But the party was fun, the food was good, and the dancing was absolutely ridiculous. Tomoyo was the only one on the floor with any sort of actual grace. Nakuru mostly opted to just bounce around and jump on random people as she saw fit. Even Touya was smiling and seemed to be enjoying himself, and Kita was seen blushing furiously when Yukito-san swept her onto the floor for a quick dance.

They had been there for a while when a slow song came on over the speakers. "Everyone partner up!" someone (it sounded like the Yamazaki person they had just met) called loudly.

The Light Bulb of Evil seemed to click on over Tomoyo's head, and she smiled. "I know!" she trilled, darting across the room while half-dragging Kita behind her. "Why don't you two dance together?" And she pushed the girl towards Kenji. He took a step back in an unconscious recoil, while Kita looked absolutely petrified. Whether that was at the idea of dancing with Kenji or just dancing in general, though, she wasn't quite sure.

"But—I…" Kita stammered, hands clutching together in front of her heart. It was a gesture she made often, usually when she was nervous or frightened. She was staring at the boy nervously now.

"Go on, go on!" Tomoyo encouraged, waving them towards each other.

Eriol appeared behind her. "You two should give it a try," he affirmed. "If you don't mind, I'm going to borrow her." And without another word (or even a by-your-leave), he whisked Tomoyo away. She let out a little squawk of indignation at the manhandling, but otherwise didn't protest.

The two children stared at each other for a long moment. Then Kenji sighed. "I don't know why I'm doing this, but…" And he awkwardly held out an arm, a silent invitation.

And she accepted with a shaky hand. It was painfully obvious that neither of them had a clue what they were doing. They were both straight-armed, leaving all that space between them. His hands were nervously on her waist, and hers rested ever-so-lightly on his shoulders in an awkward imitation of what they saw the adults doing around them. They rocked back and forth, moving stiffly in time with the music.

Kita couldn't quite meet his eyes, so she focused on his left ear. She didn't know where he was looking. Probably anywhere but at her, she really had the impression that he didn't want to be here, didn't want to be dancing with her—probably didn't want to be dancing at all, period…

"Weird…" he whispered suddenly. She barely heard him breathe the word, and without really meaning to, her eyes moved to meet his squarely.

The world froze.

The music, the people around them, even the room itself—all disappeared.

They stopped moving for the silent meeting of amber and viridian. And then, without really meaning to, they inched closer together. One of his hands stayed on her waist, while the other met hers and held it; her free hand still rested on his shoulder. There, that was better.

More…comfortable. Familiar.

What did they call it when you felt like you were doing something you had done before? Oh, that's right—déjà vu. Well, that's what this felt like, to the extreme. The posture, the way their hands were positioned, the closeness…it was like a memory from a dream. But there was something not quite right. Something still seemed a bit…off.

They didn't even hear that the song had ended. Neither moved. They simply continued to stare at each other, wondering why this seemed so right, and trying to interpret the strange feelings that tugged at them as they stood this way.

"Are you two all right?" Chihiro's concerned voice sliced through their thoughts, and the two gasped and all but flew apart as the world came back into focus. The loud, throbbing beat of a much faster song now registered in their ears, and they became acutely aware of people staring at them curiously.

"F-fine!" Kenji stammered, retreating quickly to the other side of the room.

The girl just whimpered and immediately headed for a corner to hide out. She wasn't left alone for long, though, as one of her self-appointed guardians sought her out.

"Kita-san?" Eriol bent down so he could speak to the child without being overheard. "What happened? You looked so upset…" He trailed off, looking concerned.

"It…felt weird," she confided. "Like I'd danced with him before. But I've never danced before!" But she hesitated, and he waited, knowing she would speak again when she was ready. Finally, she said, "But something wasn't right about it."

"What wasn't right?" Eriol asked, confused.

_Meanwhile, across the room Tomoyo had managed to catch Kenji before he ran too far, and asked him the same thing. And his response was frighteningly similar, though she was unaware of Eriol's hushed conversation with Kita._

"_But it was wrong," he admitted. "I mean, just…off."_

"_What wasn't right?" Tomoyo asked in an unconscious echo of Eriol's question._

And they both finally summoned up the same answer, as bizarre as it sounded.

"The clothes."

Eriol blinked.

_Tomoyo looked confused._

"He should have been wearing red," Kita said, her expression drifting off into quiet wonder.

"_She was supposed to be wearing pink," Kenji said softly, his eyes going vacant._

"The lights were different…"

"_Wrong lighting, too…"_

"And he had something on his face. Covering his eyes…"

"_The face, was she wearing glasses before or something…"_

"I guess a lot was wrong. But it felt right…"

"_Okay, so it was all messed up. But…"_

And the two adults watching over them immediately came to the same conclusion.

They were starting to remember.

_A sizable audience, as well as the rest of the play's cast, looked on in fascination as the two stars of the play danced together, the Prince and Princess. He was in red and white, she in flowing pink and ribbons, both masked in honor of the ball. The spotlights shone brightly on them both as the music washed over the assembly. It was a breathtaking sight, not lost on the audience._

_But the two children didn't even seem to notice where they were. They were lost in the moment, in the slow, steady rhythm of the music, the steps of the waltz, their own feelings, and each other's eyes._

_

* * *

_

Enough was enough, Kenji decided. Years of growing up on the streets had trained him well in the art of sneaking around—after all, a person who got caught was all too often a person who did not live to see the next sunrise. He had learned early to slip around, as silent as a shadow. Putting that skill to use, he made his escape from the party, completely oblivious to two pairs of eyes on his retreating back.

Once safely out of the parlor, he made his way to the front door. It seemed like a nice night. He had spent his fair share of nights outside on the streets and had yet to be caught by the Guards. However, if this was a safe place, he could probably just go outside for a little while and get some air before going back to the party or going to bed or whatever he saw fit.

He was startled, however, to find that he wasn't the only one who had snuck out.

Kita was standing by one of the windows beside the door, gingerly lifting up a corner of the curtains to carefully peer outside at the night sky. She didn't seem to have noticed he was there.

"Hey," he said, and she jumped a mile. "What're you doing?"

"L-looking," she stammered.

He looked at her for a minute, then walked past her and opened the door. "I'm pretty sure you can go outside, if you want. Remember, this place is supposed to be safe and all that crap." And he breezed outside, leaving the door open just an inch.

Kita stared at that crack between the doorframe and the door. Was that an invitation for her to join him? Again, trust battled with tradition—the trust of her newfound friends and their vouch of safety for their surroundings, against the tradition hammered into her by her foster family that it was never safe to be outside after dark. Finally, taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and stepped out onto the porch.

There was a balustrade that ran around the perimeter of the porch. It was chest-high on Kita, but Kenji had apparently decided that it was a comfortable place to perch. He was sitting up there, knees pulled up to his chest, back against one of the pillars that supported the overhang over the porch. He didn't verbally acknowledge her presence, but his eyes slid towards her briefly to let her know that he was aware of her before he returned his gaze to the sky.

Kita stayed closer to the house, choosing one of the chairs beside the door for her seat instead. Trust had let her go this far outside, but tradition as yet was not letting her go any further than that.

"Nice night," he commented offhandedly.

"Hmm…I've never been outside after dark before," she replied.

He turned to look at her in surprise. "Really?"

"It's true," she said quietly. "My…mother wouldn't let us out after dark. She wouldn't even let us go near the windows. She always turned out the lights and everything. The Guards were out then. She said it was too dangerous."

There was that pause again before she said 'mother,' and Kenji didn't miss it. "What was your family like?" he asked, curiosity sparked by that tiny hesitation.

She smiled fondly. "The Hikari family…they weren't my real family. I was found wandering around when I was four. I didn't know anything about myself or where I came from. So they sort of adopted me. If they hadn't taken me in, I probably wouldn't have survived. They gave me my name and a place to live and took care of me. They already had two sons—I called them my brothers, even though I knew they really weren't. I haven't seen them since Eriol-san and Kinomoto-san brought me here."

"Do you miss them?" he asked.

"I do, actually. They're the only family I've ever really known, even though they weren't my true family. I don't even know where I came from…" she sighed. "I wonder what became of them…if they're wondering what happened to me." She hadn't had any contact with her adoptive parents or siblings since her kidnapping from the streets of Tomoeda; they had no way of knowing that she was alive and safe.

Kenji made a sound, and silence lapsed for a moment.

Kita broke it suddenly. "What about you?"

He stared at her blankly. "What about me?"

"Your family. Where do you come from? I've lived in Tomoeda my whole life. Well, what I can remember, anyway," Kita asked, leaning forward to listen better. "What was your family like?"

She had never met anyone like Kenji before. Most of the people she had known in her life were a lot like her—they lived in perpetual fear of the Slayers and their might. Eriol and Tomoyo and the other people here were not afraid; they were refined and dignified and prepared to fight at all costs. But Kenji was different; he was all rough-and-tumble, unafraid of anything…and yet hiding beneath his usual 'I am the Prince' attitude, there seemed to be someone who was a great deal like her: a shy, frightened child just searching for something in life.

That was what she was seeing right now, she realized as he answered her question.

"I don't really remember my family. They died when I was really little—I was told that it was the Slayers," he began. "I probably would have died. But there was this group of kids like me, who didn't have parents or families or anywhere to go. We all banded together and formed our own family, living together wherever we could find. There was one adult who sort of looked after us—his name was Toichi."

"What was he like?" Kita interjected, fascinated by the story.

Kenji seemed to think hard for a moment. "I really don't know much about him. He had a bad leg injury, so he couldn't walk very well." A fond smile broke on the child's face. "But he was like a father to all of us—there were about sixteen of us, I think. He taught me everything I know. He took care of us—I remember getting sick, and he sat up with me all night. All he ever asked in return was that we bring him food and stuff. The basics to survive, pretty much. I was with them for about three years, I think. It wasn't exactly an easy life—we didn't go to school or anything like that—but we were pretty happy." His expression shifted from the fond smile of reminiscence to a more downcast look.

"What happened?" Kita pressed after he had been quiet for a bit.

"…there was a fire," Kenji said softly. "I'm pretty sure the Slayers started it, for whatever reason. With his injury being what it was, there was no way that Toichi could have gotten out in time. A bunch of the guys were in there too. They got trapped, and…" His voice trailed off, laden with memories.

With a start, Kita remembered his reaction to the fireball Eriol had conjured up—the stark terror in his eyes as he backed away from it. Now she understood—he had lost the closest thing to a family he had ever had to a fire. No wonder it frightened him so terribly.

"I'm sorry," she said finally. "I know that's not much, and it won't bring them back. But I'm sorry…that shouldn't have happened to you or to them."

"Well, nothing's going to change it now," he said a bit sharply. "No use in whining about it."

Kita stared at him for a minute before speaking again. "You're a really nice person, you know that?" When he turned to gape at her, she continued. "Really. You are, no matter how much you try to hide it sometimes. And this might sound really weird…but I feel like we're kind of alike. I know we're really not, but…I can see it." She smiled tentatively at him, and his eyes widened even further. "And I'd really like it if we could be friends?"

Kenji stared at her, slack-jawed. Someone actually _wanted_ to get to know him? He knew she was sincere, though—he had the impression that she didn't know how to make those kinds of jokes or be sarcastic or anything like that. And now, offering friendship? It was a fairly new experience.

But before he could answer, the door opened, and Yamazaki stuck his head out. "There you are!" He stepped out onto the porch. "We were wondering where you two snuck off to. Everything okay?"

It was like a switch being clicked to On. Gone was the curious expression, the openness, the actual emotion in Kenji's eyes. Back was the holier-than-thou attitude and the chin in the air. "Fine. I got bored at the party, that's all." And he swung his legs off the balustrade and breezed past Yamazaki, back inside, the Prince once again.

The man frowned slightly as he watched the boy leave, then turned to Kita. "What was that all about, Kita-chan?" he asked curiously, trying to ignore how much she looked like…_her_.

The girl shook her head and stood up as well. "Nothing." She looked confused now. "I think I'm going to go to bed. Thank you for the wonderful time at the party. It was fun." She smiled at him, though it was tempered by confusion and sadness.

Yamazaki stepped aside to let her pass. Now what in the world was that all about?

_

* * *

_

"Two nights from now," Eriol said grimly. "That's when I'll do it."

Tomoyo gaped at him for a moment before regaining her composure. "Are you sure? But…but why so soon? They just got here!" She tugged at her hair nervously. "Kita's still so shy, and Kenji's only just starting to warm up to us, and you're going to risk destroying that little trust by—"

"Tomoyo, it's not an option," he interrupted as he sank into his Throne of Evil and sighed, running slender fingers through dark hair. "I don't want to do this anymore than you want me to do it. But…you saw what happened when I brought their power out this afternoon. It won't hurt them yet, but it won't be long before it begins to do them harm." He shook his head. "It has to happen."

She fixed him with a Look that could have turned rain into snow. "Eriol," her tone was as warm and friendly as a glacier, "if this hurts those two in any way, shape, or form, I swear by all that is holy I will take your Sun Staff and shove it right up your—"

"Ahem," he cut her off before she could move out of the realm of the ladylike. "Don't worry. It will not harm them physically. But they will undoubtedly be confused, and so we have to be prepared to deal with that and explain this to them." He paused. "There is no choice."

Tomoyo shook her head. "I understand. I know the reasons. I know it has to be done. I just wish it didn't." She sighed. "Two days from now. Why are you waiting, if it's so important?"

"Because I'll need that long to prepare myself," Eriol replied. "And I will be quite useless for a while thereafter. The spells already in place will stay in place, but there will be a period of time there during which I will not be able to count to one. I leave it to you to care for the children—they trust you more than any of us."

"I understand," Tomoyo nodded. "I will take care of them…and you," she added.

Eriol's eyes lifted from his desk and met hers squarely, silently asking a question he would not yet voice. "Tomoyo," he began slowly, "I was wondering if—when this is all over…" He trailed off.

She waited, but after several seconds, it became clear that he was not going to finish whatever it was that he was going to say. Somewhat disappointed, Tomoyo absented herself to check on the children and seek her own bed.

_

* * *

_

Kita was restless. _Very_ restless. She had been tossing and turning like crazy for the last couple of hours, trying to doze off, but something kept her awake. It was strange, as she wasn't usually one for insomnia. But no, her eyes kept drifting towards her window, where the curtains rustled gently in the pleasantly cool night breeze.

And then it hit her—what she really wanted to do right then. She wanted to see the moon.

Carefully rolling out of bed, she tiptoed across the room and opened the closet door. A pink terry-cloth bathrobe hung inside—a gift from Tomoyo. Slipping it on over her blue pajamas and tying the sash tightly around her waist, she paused only long enough to slide her feet into a pair of slippers before easing her bedroom door open and sneaking out into the corridor.

It seemed like every single floorboard was determined to creak loudly enough to wake up the entire house. But no doors opened and no one appeared to question her. She tiptoed down the stairs and to the front door. It was here that she hesitated for the first time before steeling her resolve. She had decided to be braver, and to trust in what everyone had said about this being a safe place.

Taking a deep breath, she carefully opened the door and slipped outside, closing it behind her.

In the time the door was open, starlight flooded the house, reflecting off of two lenses. Behind those two bits of glass, blue eyes watched knowingly. Smiling to himself, Eriol turned away from the door and returned to his perch in his Throne of Evil.

Things were proceeding, that much was for certain.

"Eriol."

He didn't turn at the mention of his name. "Kaho."

"You're letting her go?" the woman moved into the room.

"I don't see why not. She'll be fine. Besides," his gaze dropped to the desk drawer, wherein resided a certain pink book, bearing a certain Forbidden Name engraved on the front, "things seem to be going along quite nicely. I don't see any reason to step in."

Kaho was silent for a moment. "What do you think about what's happening now, Eriol?"

"What I think is irrelevant," he replied softly, an unnatural tinge of guilt coloring his voice. "I wish I didn't have to do this to them. I'm quite fond of those two—Kita and Kenji both, though Kenji is still so reluctant to let his shields down around any of us. But…" He sighed, letting his eyes close. "It must be done if they are to survive."

"You'll hurt them to protect them," Kaho said bluntly.

"If it is necessary, then yes, I will," he said just as flatly. _Not much longer now…_

_

* * *

_

It was beautiful.

Kita stood outside in the dark for the first time in her life, head tilted back to look up at the sky.

So those were stars. And the moon…it really _was_ that beautiful. Huge and round and silvery-white. A full moon, she thought it was called. Wasn't that when it was all big like that?

Without really realizing it, she let her feet begin carrying her towards the forest they had explored earlier. Her eyes remained fixated on the heavens, though.

There really were that many stars in the sky overhead, scarce to be counted, the citizens of a blue-black city in the sky The moon was spectacular, but it was the stars that she found herself staring at the most. It was with the stars that she felt the most at home, the most connection. When they twinkled at her, she felt like they were welcoming her to their domain of the nighttime.

Leaves and twigs crunched at varying volumes beneath her slippered feet. It was a little spooky, with the mixture of moonlight and trees casting languid shadows across the ground. But she simply had to look up through the foliage at those innumerable lights, and she was comforted. She had nothing to fear.

It was strange. Everything was so calm and quiet. She experimentally held her arms out and twirled around, feeling the cool breeze shuffle past her clothes. It was the most wonderful sensation, to be here alone and without fear. She didn't have to hide from anything.

For the moment, she could just _be_.

She remembered then that they had found a pond earlier, and decided to try and relocate it. She didn't know why—she just wanted to see it again, she supposed, and it was someplace to go. She really had no idea where it was in the dark, but her feet chose a direction, and she let them go.

Sooner than she had anticipated, she heard the sound of water lapping gently in the night breeze. Quickening her pace, Kita stepped through the opening in the trees and found herself looking at the pond and the moon's brilliant reflection therein…and a person.

She stopped dead in her tracks and stared.

She was no longer alone.

Her breath automatically hitched, and every instinct in her body was telling her to flee, yet something kept her rooted to that spot, not letting her run for her life from certain danger.

There wasn't supposed to be anyone out here.

Yet she stood, unnoticed as yet, and stared at the person.

Or perhaps _person_ wasn't the right word for the being before her. Kita's eyes widened. Was this…an angel? She had heard stories about angels before, from other kids at school. Wasn't this what they were supposed to look like?

The being there was tall and slender. Long white hair draped down the figure's back in a ponytail that swept the ground, and the person (was it a he?) was wearing all white, blue, and silver. Some sort of wrap or drape hung casually over one arm and shoulder; his arms were crossed, and she could see the outline of long, slender fingers resting against his forearm. His head (she was more and more sure that it was a he) was bowed, and he seemed to be regarding the water in the pond. His skin was pale, almost translucent. In fact, it seemed that everything about this unknown person was white or silver.

It silently amazed her that she was able to take in this much detail at this distance.

He looked like alabaster, a statue cast of the whitest marble. In fact, if she hadn't been there earlier and seen that there was no statue there, she would have believed him to be nothing more than that. He did not move an inch, having not noticed her presence (or perhaps not caring that he was being watched). That alone was awe-inspiring. And he was beautiful, so very beautiful.

But the most striking feature, the one that truly had her convinced that the being before her was an angel, were the two snowy white wings unfurled from the person's back. Feathers as white as clouds. Could this being fly? Angels had wings, and they flew, or so the stories went. Or was he really some statue, cast from whitest alabaster and blue and silver marble, the masterpiece of an artist's loving hand somehow brought to life to move around beneath the glow of the moon and beckoning starlight?

An image sprang unbidden before Kita's eyes.

_She stood atop a tall, tall structure, staring at a figure in white hovering in the air above her._

_She was nervous, confused, frightened. Whoever it was that was floating up there bore her ill will, she was sure. There was no compassion in a cold gaze that pierced her even across the distance._

_Her hands unconsciously tightened around something long and thin in her hands._

_And she moved…_

Suddenly, Kita had a desperate desire to know what this being's eyes looked like. The color silver flashed through her mind, and she took one step forward…and heard a twig snap underfoot.

The angel turned sharply, eyes widening. Even this far away, she could see the shock on his face—for she was now certain that it was a he. And in spite of the distance, his eyes were clear—luminous silver, and slitted like a cat's. For a split second, it was completely still, and she could have believed once again that he was a beautiful statue.

Then he raised his wings—and fled. By flying.

Kita didn't know why she chased him, but before she knew it her feet were moving as fast as they could, giving chase to the mysterious man in white. "Wait!" she called out, but he wasn't paying attention. It was truly amazing how fast he could move, keeping that close to the ground.

He whipped through the trees, sending leaves and twigs scattering in his wake. It was really all Kita could do to even keep him in sight. She briefly wondered if he was evening going as fast as he really could, but then refocused on running.

Why she was chasing him, she didn't really know. She knew she wasn't going to catch him, but something compelled her to at least try and keep up with him. It was so strange…

He zipped over a bush then. She dove through it…and her foot caught on an exposed tree-root. Kita tripped spectacularly, and wound up splayed face-down in the dirt and the leaves. She heard the rustle of wings and cloth and leaves that meant she had lost her elusive quarry.

Now alone (and lost, she realized belatedly) in the woods, she sat back on her knees and took a good look at herself. She was officially a mess—her robe was covered in dirt, there were twigs in her hair, and leaves were clinging to everything. Most importantly, though—she had no idea where she was.

Who was that person, she wondered? An angel? But angels were just beings in stories, weren't they? Why would one be hiding out in the forest here like that? What was that vision she'd had when she saw him? And why, oh why, did she feel such a strong connection to that unknown being of silver and white and blue? It was remarkably similar to what she'd felt upon first meeting Tomoyo—a desperate, raw, encompassing desire to trust that person with no credentials whatsoever.

But back to the immediate problem at hand: she was now horribly lost. There was nothing around to tell her where she was in relation to the Safe House; she didn't even know how far she had run in her haste to chase the angel. She was lost in the middle of the night in unfamiliar territory. Instinctively, her eyes slid skyward. She saw the glimmer of moon and stars through the canopy, and once again found herself strangely comforted. It was as though by their very presence, she was empowered.

There was a rustling in the bushes.

Kita froze, now fixed to the spot where she knelt. Someone—or something—was there. Was it the angel? Or had Eriol been wrong, and the Slayers had found her? She waited…waited…

"Kita-chan?"

Whatever spell had held Kita frozen in place broke when the beam of a flashlight cast into her eyes, and she winced and put her arm up to shield herself from the harsh light. "Tomoyo-san?" she called, recognizing the voice.

Sure enough, Daidouji Tomoyo stepped through the foliage with far more control than Kita had earlier displayed in her haste. The flashlight held in the woman's hand scanned the girl up and down, and Kita swore she heard her older friend laughing softly. "There you are. We were wondering where you'd disappeared to this late."

"How did you know where to find me?" Kita asked, struggling to her feet. "I was lost."

"Eriol saw you leave the Safe House," Tomoyo explained. "When you didn't come back for a while, I said I was going to come look for you, just to make sure you were all right and didn't get lost."

"I was lost!" Kita half-wailed. Suddenly, she became quite aware of her appearance: dirty, disheveled, an utter mess. Standing beside the collected, beautiful Tomoyo, Kita suddenly felt like a squirrel. A dirty, disheveled, messy squirrel.

Tomoyo reached over and pulled a twig from her hair. "I see you've been having fun," she chuckled. "Well, come on. We'd better get you back and get you cleaned up. But I warn you," her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "Touya-san wasn't terribly pleased when he found out we'd let you go out on your own."

Kita winced. She hadn't really had much contact with the illustrious Kinomoto Touya, one of the two most wanted men alive. Their communications had been somewhat limited since the day he and Eriol had stolen her from the streets of Tomoeda, be it by circumstance or choice. She sometimes wondered if he was avoiding her outright, yet other times she swore she saw him lurking around corners, observing her silently from a distance.

But the fact was that he was an extremely dangerous man when angered or threatened, as his prowess in fighting the Slayers had demonstrated. And that frightened Kita, though she had Tomoyo's reassurances that she would never find herself on the receiving end of one of Touya's famed knives.

"Am I in trouble?" Kita asked hesitantly.

"No, no, they're just worried," Tomoyo said, giving her young charge's hand a squeeze. She really did feel like a mother sometimes, or at least a mother-figure, to this girl. "Everyone was just concerned about you. If something happened to you, bright one, it would hurt us all terribly."

Thus reassured, Kita allowed herself to be led back through the woods. They stepped from the trees sooner than she would have anticipated, and within moments they were back on the road to the Safe House. As it drew nearer, she saw that every light in the place was on, and the closer they got, the more pronounced the shouting voices and angry calls got.

Kita tightened her grip on Tomoyo's hand, and followed her towards the house, not noticing that Tomoyo cast a furtive glance back over her shoulder at the forest and nodded quickly.

Had Kita herself turned around, she would have seen a silhouette crouched on a tree-branch on the forest's edge. It was a strange shadow, though, because it seemed more gray than black, with large, very pronounced wings on its back. As it moved its head in response to Tomoyo's nod, the moonlight flashed silver across cat-like eyes.

_

* * *

_

"What did you think you were doing?" Kinomoto Touya demanded. Glaring down at her from his considerable height, coupled with his already-fearsome reputation, he was quite an intimidating figure, especially to one very frightened little girl. Behind him, standing beside Eriol, Kenji was smirking oh-so-cheerily at her perceived misfortune.

Hikari Kita, the one currently pinned beneath that glare, let out a tiny squeak. "B-b-but…Eriol-san said it was safe, and I just wanted to…" She sighed and slumped forward a bit before saying honestly, "I'd never seen the moon before. Or stars. I wanted to see if they were real."

She looked so adorable right then, with twigs in her hair and leaves caught on her clothes and one particular smudge of dirt right under one eye…coupled with the fact that her eyes were welling with tears and her chin was quivering, she was cute enough to have given even a Slayer pause.

And Touya was not made of stone, contrary to popular rumor. Had Kita actually been looking up at him right then, she would have seen what everyone else saw: the corners of his mouth were twitching, threatening to pull back into a smile.

"It's not that we're angry that you went outside," Touya finally went on, softening his tone a bit. "But you really should have said something to someone. If Eriol hadn't seen you go, then we wouldn't have known where you were, and you might have been stuck out there all night."

She sniffled once.

Touya broke. He reached out and ruffled her hair affectionately, ignoring the debris tangled there. "You're safe here," he actually smiled a little as she lifted her head to look at him in surprise. "And we trust you. But that has to go both ways—you have to trust us as well. Sound fair?"

Kita nodded emphatically.

"Good girl," he patted her head and straightened up.

"Umm…Touya-san?" Kita asked on a sudden whim. "Is there such a thing as angels?"

He stared at her. "Why do you ask?"

"'Cause I saw one in the woods," she said, drifting back to that magical moment by the lake. "He was tall and wore all white and had wings. I think it was an angel."

"Really…" Touya asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," Kita affirmed. "He was really beautiful…"

Kenji stiffened slightly at that; only Tomoyo noticed. Everyone else was too busy laughing.

Touya was far too good at schooling his expression to let his laughter through. Eriol had a sudden coughing fit in an attempt to hide his snickers. He knew exactly who she had seen, and already knew that the "angel" was never going to hear the end of this.

"All right, all right, that's enough," Tomoyo stepped in to fend off any further laughter. "Everyone back to your beds. That's an order, not a request. Kenji-kun, that includes you." She fixed the sniggering boy with a Look. "Kita-chan, you come with me to get cleaned up." Everyone scattered, and lights went out to the sounds of doors closing throughout the house.

Meanwhile, Kita was led to a bathroom on the ground floor. She sat on the toilet while Tomoyo fetched some towels from a small cabinet in the corner. "We'll just do what we can to get this stuff out of your hair," Tomoyo said cheerily, digging around in the white cupboard. "Tomorrow you can take a real bath. It's too late for that right now." Withdrawing several fluffy towels, she set them on the counter and took a quick surveying look of her task. "Robe off."

Sheepishly, Kita obeyed. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to get it all messy…"

Tomoyo shook her head. "These things can be cleaned. And look, your pajamas are still nice and clean," she gestured towards the blue cotton pants and shirt. "No harm done." She took the robe from Kita, opened the bathroom door a crack, and tossed it out into the hallway; a squawk suggested that it had hit some random passer-by in the face. "I'll take care of that in the morning. Now," she closed the door and turned back to Kita, "let's see what we can do about your hair." Wielding a towel and a comb as her weapons, Tomoyo gently attacked.

"So you've never been outside at night, Kita-chan?" Tomoyo asked conversationally as sticks and leaves began falling into a towel waiting to catch them. "What did you think of it?"

"It was wonderful!" Kita chirped. "The moon really is as big and pretty as everyone says! But I really liked the stars a lot. There's so many of them!" She sighed happily. "Even when I got scared or when I got lost out there, I just looked up at the stars, and I felt better. They made me really happy!"

Tomoyo nodded. "I know what you mean." She felt a pang, recognizing that Kita already felt her link to the stars, though perhaps she did not necessarily understand their link to her magic. "You know, when my best friend and I were your age, we used to be outside at night all the time…though our parents didn't usually know about it. We had all sorts of adventures!"

"Really?" Kita immediately latched onto the small tidbit of information. Tomoyo really hadn't told her a great deal about herself as of yet. "Who was your best friend? What kind of adventures? What happened to her?"

The comb stopped moving through Kita's hair. "She…died. The Slayers." Her hands rested lightly on top of Kita's head. "If you want to know the truth…I was best friends with Touya-san's sister."

Kita gasped, instantly sorry she had asked. "I'm so sorry…I didn't know!"

"Daijoubu," Tomoyo reassured her, resuming her task. "You couldn't have known."

Kita fell silent. It seemed as though everyone had loved Touya-san's sister so very deeply. And if earlier reports were to be believed, then Kita herself bore a striking resemblance to the deceased girl in question. It made her feel guilty, knowing that every time someone here looked at her, they saw Touya's sister. Whatever her name was…

It was on the very tip of Kita's tongue to ask about the girl's name when Tomoyo inadvertently interrupted her thoughts with a question of her own. "So Kita-chan, what do you think of Kenji? I know you two were out on the porch for a while after the party. Did you have a nice conversation?"

Kita frowned in thought. "I'm really not sure what to think of him. We did have a nice talk for a while, and I thought maybe we were getting to be friends…but the minute Yamazaki-san showed up, he was back to his whole 'I am the Prince' attitude. I don't know what to think!"

"Well, he's probably still getting used to the whole idea of living with us," Tomoyo pointed out.

"Half the time he seems so nice," Kita huffed. "But the rest of the time, he marches around like he owns the place. Like he thinks he's better than everyone else or something! It drives me nuts!"

Unbeknownst to both, someone had been walking by, but had paused upon hearing his name. He listened to that much of the conversation, and after listening to Kita's comments, amber eyes averted, and the small eavesdropper continued on his way without looking back. In doing so, he missed what came next.

"Still," Kita went on, "I hope we can be friends. When he's not being all high-and-mighty, he's really nice. I do want us to be friends." She was silent for a moment as a few more leaves fell from her hair into the waiting towel.

"Kita-chan?" Tomoyo prodded, sensing that there was something else on the girl's mind.

Finally, Kita spoke again, a barest whisper. "Kenji…he has really beautiful eyes."

_

* * *

_

After making certain that Tomoyo was otherwise occupied with getting Kita cleaned up, Eriol slipped outside onto the front porch. It wouldn't do to incur the wrath of the fearsome Daidouji heiress. Not at all. But fortunately, he wasn't the only one making a quick defiance of her ultimatum that everyone was to be in bed as of ten minutes ago.

Touya was waiting for him, along with another.

"Ah, the angel pays us a visit," Eriol smirked.

The angel—otherwise known as Yue—did not appear amused at all. He stormed up to Eriol. "That girl saw me in the woods. I didn't mean for her to see me, but she did. But who is she?" Long, slender fingers clenched into fists. "Who is that girl? And why does she look so much like…like…" He trailed off as his anger crashed against the painful memory.

"We found her," Eriol said shortly. "I'll give more of a detailed explanation when there's more time. But long story very short, Touya and I ran into her on the streets of Tomoeda. The Guards were after her—my guess is that someone recognized her. We essentially kidnapped her and brought her here, and now I am training her in her magic before…other measures can be taken."

"Is it just her?" Yue pressed.

"No," Eriol shook his head. "We have them both here. Neither of them remember anything definite, though. There's basic recognition—they know they can trust us, even if they don't know why they want to—and I have the feeling that they've had dreams and visions, probably for most of their lives. Flashbacks to what they once were. But they don't know what any of it actually means."

"What 'other measures' do you have in mind?" Yue asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "If that girl really is her, then I will stand against even you if it means you intend to harm her." He folded his arms, looking every inch the menacing Moon Guardian.

"At ease, Yue," Eriol held up his hands in a placating gesture. "I would never harm either of them. It needs to be done." He glanced over Yue's shoulder. "Would you fill him in?"

Touya nodded. "Better change back before someone else sees you." He cracked a smile and snickered. "Wouldn't want anyone else mistaking you for an angel, now would we?"

Yue muttered something highly uncomplimentary, but folded his snowy wings around him. There was a flare of white light, and the wings opened and receded, leaving only Yukito, in his jeans and long-sleeved black shirt. He looked around, blinking owlishly behind his glasses. "Did I change?" He looked panicked, ever so slightly. The change always unnerved him.

"You did," Touya slung an arm around his friend's shoulders. "Come on, I promised Yue I'd explain to him exactly what's going to happen in the next few days here. Let's go inside." And they were gone; the front door closed behind them, leaving Eriol alone on the porch.

With a sigh, Clow Reed's reincarnation sank into one of the chairs near the balustrade and rested his elbows on it, looking up at the sky. Kita had been right; the stars were exceptionally lovely tonight.

Kita…he had grown to truly love that child, as a father loves a treasured daughter. The terrified young girl who had first fallen into their world so recently had already blossomed into someone far more like what she had once been so very long ago. Her smiles made him smile, and her laughter could brighten even his most sour moods.

She had already made it quite clear that she would take to the magic lessons willingly, and her progress that afternoon, seemingly a baby step, was quite impressive and encouraging. He had no fear that she would pick it back up again quickly. Kenji as well, for that matter, if he were able to keep his attitude in check long enough to sit through the lessons.

However, he wasn't really too concerned about Kenji. He was quite sure he could handle the boy, just as he had handled the one Kenji so resembled once upon a time. The boy was brash, and showed no fear whatsoever. Eriol really believed that the kid would do something like this just to prove that he could. Whatever the motivation, it suited Eriol just fine.

But there was one thing about Kita that still ate at Eriol: that wild-animal shyness. If given the slightest inkling that someone might be upset with her, she withdrew immediately. She drank up any compliment she was given as a religious fanatic would swallow holy scripture, and it concerned him. That sort of shyness all-too-often spoke of abuse or neglect. But Kita herself had told him about her adoptive family—the Hikari family—and nothing in her stories had given any impression of that sort of thing. To hear her tell it, they were quite loving towards the child they had taken in.

And Eriol was fairly certain that Kita didn't even know how to lie, let alone lie that convincingly.

Still, when speaking of her family, she had always shown a bit of…was it sorrow? Was that the right word for it? She knew that they weren't her true birth-parents, and that had somehow kept her from fully embracing them, though he knew that she did love and treasure them. Perhaps that was the cause of her shyness, somehow?

But more importantly was what was still to come. The day after tomorrow was when it would happen, he had decided. He knew it was necessary. Yet it frightened him. He had gained Kita's trust almost wholeheartedly, in spite of their rather shaky beginning. And he sensed that Kenji was grasping that Eriol was a safe protector and perhaps a knowledgeable mentor. The former street urchin was beginning to open up ever so slightly.

And it frightened them that he might have to betray that trust to a certain degree in order to protect them and prepare them for what lay ahead in a future that was far too near for Eriol's liking.

"Eriol-san?"

He had been so wrapped up in his own musings that he hadn't even heard the door opening or noticed the soft footsteps pattering towards him. And sure enough, the very object of his thoughts was standing beside him, watching him curiously.

He winked at her. "Are you braving Tomoyo's wrath as well, bright one?"

Kita shook her head. "We saw you out here, and I asked if I could come keep you company. Tomoyo-san said that was okay, but if I catch a cold, she's going to get you for it." She giggled, then sobered a bit. "Do you mind company?"

"Not at all," he smiled indulgently, gesturing to a vacant chair beside him. "Have a seat."

She obeyed happily, and reached up to set her arms on the railing, resting her chin comfortably on her forearms. They sat like that quietly for a while, just looking at the clear night sky.

"Did you know, Kita-chan," he began conversationally, "that it is possible to read the stars?"

The child looked at him with inquisitive green eyes. "You can read the stars?"

"Unworthy as I am, my dear," he smiled. "Some people read palms. Some people read tea leaves. Some people even read books. I read the stars. They tell me many, many stories. And they like to tell me interesting things. Sometimes, they tell me what is to come."

"What are they telling you now?" Kita piped.

Eriol shifted his gaze slightly to look at her. "They're telling me that a legend is going to be revived soon. And when that happens, everything will change. This hellish world that we live in will be reborn. A lot is going to change soon, Kita-chan."

"What legend?" Kita asked, tilting her head to one side. "Tell me."

Eriol regarded her for a moment before deciding that it couldn't hurt. "All right. This is something of a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?" When she nodded, he smiled. "Get comfortable."

He waited while she shifted a tiny bit in her seat. "Now, once upon a time—as all good stories should begin—there was a sorcerer named Clow Reed. He lived a very, very long time ago. He was a very powerful magician, and one day, he decided to make something with his magic. He created what he called Clow Cards—a deck of cards with magical powers. Each card had a different magical ability. There was a card for each of the four basic elements—Windy, Watery, Firey, and Earthy—as well as other abilities, like the Erase, Glow, Light, and Dark. Clow also created two magical Guardians to protect the Cards and their master. When he died, the Guardians and the Cards went to sleep in their book for a very, very long time." He looked down at her. "Are you with me so far?"

She nodded emphatically.

"Then one day, many years later, a little girl was home alone after school when she heard something in her basement," he recollected. "She went downstairs to see what was going on, fearing an intruder. Instead, she found a glowing book. When she opened it, she found a deck of Cards, and when she read the name on the first one—Windy—all of the Cards blew away!" He chuckled as Kita's jaw dropped. "Well, one of the Guardians awoke then, and instructed the girl to find the Cards. He gave her a wand to use, and taught her to seal the Cards away. He chose her, as was his duty as Guardian. And thus, the Cardcaptor was born."

"Did she have a name?" Kita asked suddenly.

"As a matter of fact, she did," Eriol replied. "Her name was Sakura."

Kita's eyes widened. "But that's—"

"A Forbidden Name?" Eriol chuckled. "Yes, I know. But that was her name. Cardcaptor Sakura, if you will. She was about your age when she got the job. She recruited one of her friends to help her, and with the help of her Guardian, they set about trapping the Cards. She had captured perhaps half a dozen Cards when another complication was thrown into the mix."

"What was that?" Kita asked.

"Clow Reed had descendants, a whole Clan of them. They lived in Hong Kong," Eriol went on. "They got word that the Cards had been released, and sent one of their own to retrieve them. The person chosen for this task was to be the future leader of their Clan, who could trace his lineage directly to Clow Reed. He appeared on the scene, and…well, let's just say that at first he and the Cardcaptor did not get along very well."

"Why?" Kita interjected.

Eriol threw her an amused sidelong glance. "If you keep asking questions, I'm never going to get all the way through the story!" At her sheepish look, he shook his head. "Ask all the questions you want. Hopefully, I'll answer most of them anyway." He took a deep breath. "He, along with his Clan, knew that the Cards were extremely powerful magical items, and this Clan was well-versed in the schools and uses of magic. Furthermore, as the Cards had been created by their much-revered ancestor, they felt it was their right to possess the Cards."

"But didn't you say that the Guardian chose Sa—the girl to be the Cardcaptor?" Kita queried. "So weren't the Cards supposed to be hers?" Even now, she couldn't say the Forbidden Name.

"Very good. Thus, the burden of the Cards fell on Sakura's shoulders," he smiled inwardly as she winced at his blatant use of the Name. "Still, the young man appeared to try and take them from her. And that young man was named Syaoran—yes, the other Forbidden Name. But the Guardian had chosen, so there was nothing he could really do."

"I bet he wasn't too happy about that," Kita sighed.

"No, he wasn't. But you'll be happy to know that Syaoran came to respect Sakura after a while. And eventually, they became very good friends. They worked together to capture the Clow Cards. Once all the Cards were sealed, though, Sakura had to go through what was called the Final Judgment, to prove herself worthy of being the Card Mistress. That means that the Cards would be hers and hers alone, and no one else could use them."

"Sounds rough."

"It was. But she passed, and became the Card Mistress. Life went on, until some strange things began happening in their town—they lived in Tomoeda, did you know that?" She shook her head. "So they stepped back up to fight whatever this new thing happening was. And Sakura began to change the Cards, from Clow Cards into Sakura Cards."

"Why did she have to change them?"

"The Cards had been living up until then on the magic left in them from Clow Reed. But that magic was running out, and if it did run out, then the Cards would become plain pieces of paper. So in order for them to survive, Sakura had to change them to be able to support them on her own magic. Things went along fairly well for a while…until something else happened. Something very unexpected."

"What what what?" Kita bubbled impatiently.

"Remember how mean Syaoran was to Sakura when he first came for the Cards?"

Kita nodded.

"Well, Syaoran fell in love with Sakura, the Card Mistress."

Kita gasped.

Eriol nodded. "It's true. It took him quite a long time to finally tell her how he felt. But when he finally did confess his feelings to her, he was amazed to find that she loved him in return. And so they were happy together, having successfully changed the Cards. Their magic continued to grow, as did their relationship. All was well in their world."

"But what was causing the trouble in the first place?" Kita asked.

"You are a perceptive one," he smiled. "Remember Clow Reed? Well, he had been reincarnated, and his reincarnation had gone to Tomoeda to help Sakura change the Cards, going to her school and staying at her side as one of her friends. He knew what would happen if she didn't, and not wanting to see his creations die or Sakura's grief if they did, he set up little tricks, tasks, and in some cases, outright attacks to get her to change the Cards as the situation called for it. After it was all over, he told her the truth. There were no hard feelings, though, and he eventually came to stay in Tomoeda for good."

"Sa—she must have been a really nice person to forgive all those people who were mean to her," Kita observed, still not daring to utter the Forbidden Name even now. "So what happened to them? And why are they the Forbidden Names?"

Eriol's eyes clouded over then, and he looked away from Kita. "Are you sure you want to hear this part, Kita-chan? It's not a happy ending to their story."

"Tell me," she insisted.

"Sakura and Syaoran…died."

Another gasp escaped the girl.

"The Slayers lured them out, separated them, and executed them," he closed his eyes. The memories of that evening were still so vivid. He could still see Syaoran sprawled on the pavement, his neck broken, still hear Sakura's choked gasps as she lay dying in her brother's arms.

"But—but why?"

"They knew that the Card Mistress and her friend-now-lover were the biggest threats to their power. And they also knew that the Cards were priceless as magical treasures. So they sought to eliminate the Card Mistress, and claim the Sakura Cards for themselves," his voice trembled slightly now at memories he had carefully walled up for the last decade. "While they did succeed in the murders, they never did find the Cards."

He half-expected Kita to pop in with another question then, but she was surprisingly quiet. So he went on. "Sakura and Syaoran's friends—the ones who knew about their magic—took the Cards and hid them to protect them. It was the next day, the day after they died, when the Slayers started their attack and marched into Tomoeda. They still don't have the Cards."

Eriol finally turned and looked back at Kita, who was staring at her hands, now folded in her lap, with wide eyes. She looked paler than usual, even with the moonlight washing out her features.

"Kita-chan?" he asked, now very concerned. Maybe he had told her too much, too soon. She was only ten years old, after all. "Kita-chan, are you all right?"

The first tear slipped from her eye. "I hate them."

Eriol started at her words.

More tears followed suit in rapid succession. "I hate the Slayers. I hate them." She raised her hands to her eyes, still balled into white-knuckled fists, and tried desperately to wipe her tears away, albeit unsuccessfully. "I hate them so much!" She was crying outright now.

"Kita-chan, you shouldn't hate," he said, feeling more than a little hypocritical.

"I hate them! They killed everyone! They killed my family and Kenji's family and his friends later," she remembered his story from earlier that night. "And they killed Sakura and Syaoran and everyone and I hate them!" She kept going, but the rest of her words were lost into sobs after the Forbidden Names left her lips. She cried and cried.

Instinctively, Eriol reached for her, gathering the small, shaking form into his arms in a tight hug. She clambered towards him, ending up perched in his lap, clinging to him with tight fists while she sobbed brokenly against his shoulder.

"Shh, shh," Eriol shushed her gently, fighting off his own emotions. In hindsight, he had never really allowed himself to grieve for his two fallen friends; there just hadn't been time. And now, in the face of Kita's tears, he found himself forced to face feelings that he had methodically shut away for all this time.

It marked one of the very few times in his life that Hiiragizawa Eriol had cried. He clung to Kita as desperately as she held onto him, and finally released his own grief over the senseless murder of two of his closest friends, his anger over what was happening now, and his terror at what was still to come. He was exhausted, running on fumes, and just didn't have the energy to fight it off any longer.

Beneath the twinkling blanket of stars, their shadows cast in the silvery white glow of the full moon, two lost, sad souls shared their pain.

* * *

**PS.** _There ya go. After not updating forever and ever, I give you twenty pages and sixteen thousand words, the single longest chapter I have ever written to date. May that make up for it to some degree. Would you believe I wrote about fifteen pages of this in one day? Just got going and couldn't stop. After struggling to write it for this long, it suddenly just flew together. Lucky, huh?_

_Hopefully, it will not take me this long to write the next chapter. Still got a few twists and turns to get through before this story can officially be called done. Hope somebody's still out there to read and maybe like this story (grin)._

_Much love, and happy holidays to all!_


	6. Shadows of the Past

**AN: **This story is officially taking me forever. I promise it'll get done…eventually. It just might take a little while, ya know? Anyway, let's see if we can keep on trucking. Onward! I don't own CCS.

* * *

**Shadows of the Past**

Kita stepped out into the morning sun, and instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes from the bright light. It was a perfect day to spend outside—after her escapades in the woods the previous night, she had decided that whether or not everyone's claims of safety were actually true, she loved this place that they called the Safe House, and was determined to see all there was to see. She'd never had this sort of freedom before, and it was very empowering to know that she could wander without fear.

Standing on the front porch with her hands on her hips, she surveyed the scenery, trying to decide where to start that day's adventure. A movement off to one side caught her eye, though, and she turned to see Kenji walking off towards one side of the house.

Remembering their conversation on the porch from the night before—when he had suddenly seemed he would open up to her and accept her friendship—she decided to go talk to him. She took the porch steps two at a time, landing with minimal skidding at the foot of the stairs. This was definitely the most energetic she could ever remember feeling. With bouncy steps, she tracked Kenji off to the side of the house…and paused when she saw him.

His face was cold and impassive enough to be a mask. And he was shadow-boxing, punching an indivisible opponent in the air in front of him. The blows cleaved the empty space with a startling ferocity. Had someone actual received those punches, there would have been serious injury inflicted.

She watched him for a moment, seeing the unfeeling ice in his eyes. After a moment of silent observation, she approached him slowly. "Kenji? Would you like to go for a walk?" she asked. For some reason, she was desperately hoping he would say yes. "Maybe out to the forest again?"

To her surprise, he didn't answer. He just kept swinging at the air. Right, left, right, left.

"Kenji?" she tried again, hesitantly.

"What do you want?" he replied harshly enough that she stepped back in surprise. His voice was as warm and friendly as a glacier, uninviting to any further comments or conversation. It was…scary.

Kita was silent for another moment, then tried again. "Kenji, I was wondering—"

"What?" he snapped for a second time.

She jumped back. But now her confusion was dissipating into something she had not expected to feel: anger. She hadn't felt much anger in her short life, but now it was bubbling up and over the top. "Kenji!" she barked. "What's wrong with you?"

He whirled on her with unexpected speed. "What? What do you want? Why would you want to spend time around me? I heard what you said to Tomoyo-san last night—every word. I'm the Prince, I'm better than everyone—if I make you so angry, then why are you here?"

Kenji was advancing with slow, even steps as he spoke, and she was backing up in turn. He was livid, and as she'd just seen, he was powerful for his age and size. If he decided he wanted to hurt her, there was no doubt that he could do it. Yet still, she wasn't afraid of him. There was something deep down that refused to believe that he would harm her, and she trusted that without reason.

When her back bumped into the house's white-painted wall, she found herself trapped. He was right up in her face, one of his hands on either side of her head; his nose was mere centimeters from hers. Their eyes met, and deadlocked. Neither would look away.

"Do you know what the law of the street is?" he asked in a low, even tone. "Take all you can, or else someone else'll get it first. Keep your wits about you, or you die. Betray the other guy first, better him than you. Trust no one, or you'll get stabbed in the back." His face was neutral, void of expression, but even through the careful shield of his eyes, she could see hurt there. "Thanks for proving me right."

Kita was horrified to realize that she was crying, but she refused to break the commune of their gaze. "That's not true…" she said between hiccups. "Kenji, that's just not true…"

The look that crossed his face was not angry, nor was it annoyed. She didn't even know what it was, but he didn't look happy. For a moment, she wondered if he was going to apologize, but instead, he suddenly pushed away from her and turned to storm away, around the back of the house. Kita was left there, her back still flat against the wall, hiccupping.

Suddenly, she just needed to leave. She needed to run and get as far away from Kenji as possible. Without thinking, she pushed off the wall and turned and started to run from the house, in the opposite direction. Tears still blurred her vision, and she stumbled numerous times, but she just kept pushing herself.

She kept going until she suddenly felt resistance. Something was blocking her from going forward, but it felt like it was giving way beneath the force of her attempts to move forward…she kept pushing, anger and sadness still propelling her forward…

There was a strange noise, almost like a slurping noise, and she found herself face-down on the grass. Kita rolled over, rubbing her now-aching knees, and looked up to see what had just happened.

To her amazement, she couldn't see the Safe House clearly. It was blurry, like she was looking at it through a veil, or through water. In fact, there was something there. It really looked like a wall of water. A barrier, it seemed…was that what she'd had to fight to break through? Momentarily forgetting why she had fled in the first place, Kita studied the barrier carefully. What did it mean?

She was frightened, though, when she put her hand against the water-wall…and found that she could not step back through it. It was like pressing against a brick building, solid and unyielding. She pushed at it with both hands while panic rose rapidly in her throat, but it was to no avail. She was stuck on the outside, and safety was on the inside.

Kita started to cry again, this time out of sheer panic, and found herself stumbling around, groping for an opening. She felt stupid for running away, stupid for what had happened with Kenji…she just needed to get back inside and she could apologize, but the barrier wouldn't let her through…

"Well, what do we have here?"

The low voice made her jump a mile and whirl around, eyes widening in terror, already instinctively knowing what was there. Sure enough, three Guards in full armor, with full armaments, were standing a mere couple of meters away, watching her with identical smirks.

"A little lost missy," one of them said in a slow drawl, taking a step towards her.

"Do you need some help, little girl?" another one added; he also inched towards her.

Kita wasn't quite sure what those gazes meant, but she knew that it was nothing good. Still, the three of them were sidling towards her with strange smirks. Her adoptive mother had warned her of the Slayers and their minions and that they did horrible things to little girls caught alone, but she didn't quite understand what they did…

_Oh no…oh no…_ she thought in terror, backing up in time to their advances. There was nowhere to go, she was trapped…one of them reached for her with a sickening smile, and she knew she was doomed.

"NO!" Kita screamed, throwing her arms up in front of herself in a futile attempt at defense…

To her amazement—and the obvious amazement of her assailants—a blinding white light erupted in a circle around her. Kita's shriek of surprise and horror echoed the cries of the Slayer Guards beyond the wall of white-hot light. She didn't know what was happening, but she was frightened.

When the glow faded, Kita hesitantly lowered her arms to see what had just happened, and was stunned to see the three Guards lying on the ground around her. Or rather, what was left of them. The remains were charred, blackened, and smoldering.

Dead. Burned to death.

Kita recoiled in horror. Had she…had she somehow…she'd killed them. It was magic, her magic, and it had killed these three men. They'd been planning to do something terrible to her, she knew that much, but they hadn't deserved to die like that…

Sick. She felt sick to her stomach, and her breakfast made an unscheduled reappearance, staining the brilliant green of the grass. As she retched and tried frantically to catch her breath, she stumbled backwards and ran into the barrier that had shut her away from the Safe House in the first place. The world was spinning, and all she could think was that she had killed.

She was defiled.

A killer.

No better than the Slayers.

_Murderer_.

It was too much for her young mind and heart to deal with. Darkness was pulling at the edges of her vision, borne of shock and terror, and she surrendered to it, letting it pull her down into the well of blackness, away from the deaths she had caused. But that word followed her down, imprinted in bold letters across the smear of crimson she swore was now staining her hands.

_Murderer_.

The last thing Kita remembered, aside from her mantra, was a rush of cool air, that slurping sound…and strong arms catching her as she tumbled limply towards the hard, unfeeling ground.

_**-o-**_

_Screaming terror fear don't touch me don't touch me help no stop scared fear…_

Kita bolted upright with a shriek, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

A cool hand was immediately on her forehead as another touched her shoulder. It didn't take much pressure to push her back down to the pillow; she wasn't resisting at all. Once she was lying down again, she opened her eyes to see who her caretaker was. "Eriol-san…" she breathed.

The sorcerer's worn eyes were kind behind his glasses. "Are you all right, Kita-san?" he asked, patting her hair with all the gentle affection of a father watching over his daughter.

"What happened?" she asked.

"There's a barrier around the Safe House," Eriol explained, "that cannot be penetrated by the Slayers. They cannot even see the building through the protections I've set in place. That is why we hold this house to be the safest place we know of. Could you see through the barrier, Kita-san?"

"It was all fuzzy…but I could see it," she said, frowning as she tried to recall. She sat up again, albeit a bit more calmly this time, and he permitted her to remain upright. She was steady.

He nodded. "You've already been through the barrier. That, plus your magic, made it possible. Unfortunately, your powers are not yet strong enough for you to traverse the barrier on your own. That's why you could step outside of it, but not get back in. Unfortunately, a few of our less scrupulous enemies happened upon you, and—"

"I killed them," Kita said flatly, remembering the light and what it had done. The light in her green eyes flickered and went out as her expression went blank with the horror of realization; small hands clenched into white-knuckled firsts around the bedclothes. "There was a white light, and it killed them. I murdered them."

Eriol's reaction stunned her: he leaned forward and pulled her into a tight hug. One of the most hunted men in the world, wanted dead or alive by the Slayers with an obscene price on his head…and he was embracing a frightened child with all the protective force of a parent. If the Slayers could see him now, they wouldn't believe it.

"You did nothing wrote, Kita," he told her firmly, dropping the customary suffix from her name. "That white light was your magic. It turned itself loose like that as a self-defense mechanism, to protect you. You haven't been trained yet, so there's no way you could have held it in check. No one blames you. _You did nothing wrong."_

Against the warmth of his kindness and the weight of her own exhaustion, Kita burst into tears. She clung to Eriol desperately and cried out her anger and fear and guilt over what had happened. No matter what he said and no matter how much she wanted to believe him, it was all her fault. She shouldn't have run away in the first place. And three people had died because of her stupidity.

It was a lot to take for one so young.

But eventually, the storm subsided, and she reluctantly pulled away. "I'm sorry…"

"Nothing to be sorry for," he said kindly. "But I have to ask, Kita-san…why did you run through the barrier in the first place? Were you running away?" His tone was one of honest curiosity.

Kita decided it best not to hide anything. Still, she felt ashamed to tell him what had happened: her exchange with Tomoyo the night before, the argument with Kenji that morning, and the subsequent flight that had taken her out of the realm of Eriol's protections and into the hands of the three Guards. When she finished, there was a heavy silence. She waited for the axe to fall…

"That's odd," Eriol said. "Kenji-kun didn't mention anything about an argument."

Her head snapped back to look at him in shock. "W-what?"

"He told me that he'd seen you take off running, and he saw this weird ripple—when you went through the barrier," Eriol explained. "That was when he came and found me. I don't think he knew what that ripple was. We got there just as your magic escaped, and brought you back. Kenji carried you himself, while I took care of things there."

"…Kenji did that?" Kita said softly, disbelieving.

Eriol nodded.

"But…I thought…" she stammered. "I—I don't understand."

Eriol smiled. "You don't have to."

_**-o-**_

In spite of Eriol's reassurances, Kita couldn't stop feeling guilty about her involvement in the deaths of three people. Slayers or not, they didn't deserve that kind of a death. She'd heard them scream in pain as her uncontrolled magic seared them.

But that was one more reason she would take to Eriol's training. She would learn to control her magic, she vowed with all the might in her young being, so that nothing like this would ever happen again. It was really the only thing she could do.

She'd avoided Kenji at all costs. What could she say to him? He felt like she'd betrayed him, and then he turned around and saved her. She couldn't read him, she didn't know how to handle it, and so she shied away from him to put off the confrontation as long as possible. He didn't seem to be seeking her out either, so it wasn't too difficult a task to maintain her distance.

Instead, she decided to spend the rest of her afternoon seeing what she could find by peering into the forgotten corners of the Safe House. Though it was occupied, the place gave the impression that it held secrets, and Kita wondered if she might be able to find some of them. Nobody seemed to mind her poking around too much, so long as she didn't venture into anyone's private room or belongings—not that she would have done such a thing anyway. Given more or less the full run of the house, she began to explore, oblivious to the numerous pairs of amused eyes that watched her discretely.

It wasn't until after she'd been prowling for a while that she stumbled across a set of stairs she'd never seen before. They weren't really hidden—there was merely a door separating them from the rest of the house—but she'd never opened that door before. With a child's insatiable curiosity, she took the first tentative steps up those stairs, towards the semi-darkness that waited above.

As she reached the top of the stairs, though, she realized quickly where she had ended up. The expansive room was furnished with boxes, crates, and what looked like a lot of junk, all of which bore a thick layer of dust identical to the blanket of dirt on the wooden floorboards. There were no marks in the dust, so she assumed that no one had been up here in quite some time.

She'd found the attic.

Kita paused for a moment at the mouth of the stairs, wondering if she should be up here. But no one had said she couldn't come up here, right? And if she wasn't supposed to be looking through here, someone would surely come and tell her, and the issue would be closed; she wouldn't do it again.

It was a testament as to just how much she'd changed in the last several days amidst Tomoyo, Eriol, and the others of the Resistance. The Kita who had come here initially would have never dared to venture into a place where she had not been given express permission to be. Now her curiosity won out over all else, spurred by the knowledge that even if she wasn't supposed to be here, there would be no real trouble or punishment.

With a bit more confidence, she made her way towards the boxes and started opening lids to peer at the various contents. The first few boxes were filled with papers and books—surely fascinating, but not of any immediate interest to a child's attention span. So she went on in her search. But it wasn't until quite a while later that her efforts finally yielded something that could constitute a secret. And she found it when she wasn't really looking for it.

She was pushing a box aside to try and get to another one behind it when she tripped and managed to land in a dusty heap on the floor between several boxes. The cloud of dirt she raised was enough to incapacitate her for a good minute while she coughed and hacked. But when she finally got ahold of herself and pushed herself up to her knees, she found herself staring at what appeared to be an old steamer trunk.

It wasn't anything fancy or outlandish—black paint, with trim that had probably once been gold but had long since worn away to a tarnished silver. She hadn't noticed it right away because it had been hidden behind several stacks of boxes. More importantly, Kita noticed, the padlock that was to have kept its contents locked away was hanging open.

Unable to resist, Kita gently lifted the old lock from the latch; it was rusted from the obvious years of storage, and so it took a bit of effort on her part, but in short order, she was lifting the latch and raising the lid to peer down at the contents of the trunk.

The items gathered inside the chest were as orderly as the rest of the attic was cluttered. Things were folded, organized, and set in there neatly, obviously an act of loving hands. Whatever was in here was definitely important; Kita felt the first real stirrings of guilt at her intrusion.

Still, curiosity overruled her conscience, and she reached down into the trunk to pick up the item sitting on the very top: a small framed photograph. The frame was silver, and showing signs of ages. The picture's edges had yellowed a bit, revealing it to be even older. But it was the subject of the photo that made Kita's jaw drop.

She recognized Kinomoto Touya in the picture, but the picture was obviously from many years ago; there were none of the visible signs of the burdens he carried at present. He was wearing jeans and a red shirt, in stark contrast to the monochromatic black he favored now. He looked younger, happier, more at ease with the world. For some reason, it made Kita's heart clench at his smile.

But more amazingly was the other person in the photo. A girl of perhaps ten or eleven years old. She was standing in front of Kinomoto-san; he was stooped down to sling one arm casually across her small shoulders. They were both smiling so happily, and both looked like they hadn't a care in the world. It was the girl that frightened her.

The girl in the picture looked exactly like Kita.

It took her a moment to realize who that girl was—_Kinomoto-san's sister_. The one who had been killed by the Slayers at the beginning of the invasion. The one everyone had loved so dearly. She'd been told she resembled the deceased girl, but to actually see the picture and see the nameless girl's face and know it as the same one she saw whenever she looked in the mirror…it was shocking.

Kita sat and looked at that photograph for a very long time. Finally, slowly, she lowered it back into the chest. Sooner or later she would have to work up her nerve and just ask Tomoyo-san to tell her all about the deceased girl.

Her hands brushed against fabric as she replaced the picture. Curious, she lifted what at first seemed simply a large bundle of red cloth. However, it quickly unfolded, and she realized that it was, in fact, an article of clothing. Namely, a red cloak-like garment. She stood up and held it out in front of her. It seemed to be about the right length for someone her size, though it would trail on the ground a bit. There was a large bow on the front to hold it in place.

It was definitely not a normal article of clothing, and Kita was curious. Making a quick decision, she gathered it into a small bundle. A glance back at the trunk proved that there were still more things in there, just waiting to be looked at and handled again, but she resolved to come back later and keep looking, so long as she wasn't forbidden to do so.

Taking the red bundle with her, she headed back to the stairs, leaving a trail of footprints in the considerable dust on the floor, and back to the rest of the house. It didn't take her long to find Tomoyo; the Daidouji heiress was in her sewing room on the ground floor, working on something at the machine there. She looked up at the girl as she entered. "Kita-chan, what have you been doing? You're filthy!"

The girl was suddenly aware of her state—crawling around in the dust had left her covered in a heavy layer of grime. And Tomoyo's room was pristine…she suddenly felt very self-conscious. "I found the attic, and I was looking around."

Tomoyo smiled. "Someone really needs to clean up there. The place probably hasn't seen a mop in years. So did you find anything interesting?" She didn't seem upset that Kita had been poking around, and that gave the child courage.

"I found this," she held out the cape she'd filched from the hidden trunk. "What's this from?"

Tomoyo rose from her chair and moved to take bright red fabric from outstretched hands. "What did you fin—oh…" Her voice trailed off as it unfolded to its full length and she realized exactly what she had been given. "Oh…oh my…" She seemed spellbound, as her mind slipped back to another time…

_She watched in awe as her best friend zipped through the air on a thin staff with what appeared to be a bird's head on the end; wings fluttered in the night breeze as she dove left and right to dodge the assault of looming darkness._

_No, not darkness.__Shadow. The Card was Shadow._

_As the girl faced the magical being, her red cape swung around her—all captured through the lens of a video camera, held by one who had sworn to stay at her friend's side and document her adventures and bravery and make sure she was dressed for the part…_

"Tomoyo-san?"

She shook herself. "Hmm?"

"Tomoyo-san, are you all right?" Kita was pulling on her hand to try and get her attention.

"I'm fine. I just…haven't seen this in quite a while," Tomoyo said, tightening her fingers around the red cloth. "This belonged to Touya-san's sister. What's more, I made it for her as part of a costume."

"There was a picture upstairs—of Kinomoto-san and a girl," Kita said; she wasn't surprised to learn that the cape had belonged to the anonymous sister. "She looked just like me. Was that—"

"That was her," Tomoyo nodded.

"I thought so," Kita said sadly—why it made her so sad was a mystery. "But you made this for a costume for her? Why did you make this for her? Did you make costumes for her a lot?"

"I was always making clothes for her," Tomoyo said, sitting back down. Kita immediately scooted over and sat on the floor, letting her head rest against Tomoyo's knee. Instinctively, one hand slid to the girl's hair, gently threading through the honey-brown locks. "She was so adorable, everything always looked exactly as it was supposed to when she wore it. And then I'd videotape her wearing the outfits. She was sometimes embarrassed about it, but she never told me no." Tomoyo's hand paused in Kita's hair. "You know, I bet the same could be said about you."

Kita looked up. "Me?"

"In fact," Tomoyo looked down at the cape that her best friend had worn to capture the Shadow Card, and smiled, "I bet this would look wonderful on you. Here, take it. I want you to have it."

"But—"

"No buts," Tomoyo said firmly. "Stand up." When Kita obeyed, Tomoyo swept the garment around her small shoulders, fastening the bow in its proper place in front. It looked a little strange over Kita's now-dusty blue dress, but it did fit her like it was meant for her.

Tomoyo faltered at that idea. _Perhaps it was meant for you…_

Still, she kept her smile up for Kita's benefit, and nodded approval. "There. It's perfect."

"Tomoyo-san, are you sure?"

"Absolutely. It's yours now."

"Well…okay…" Kita accepted reluctantly. She did, however, take a bit of the fabric in each hand and raise her arms to see how it fanned out behind her; she even spun around experimentally, and giggled at the way it twirled with her. "Thank you, Tomoyo-san!"

Tomoyo nodded with as much sadness as enjoyment at the girl's antics.

_It was meant for you. You should wear it._

_**-o-**_

After thanking Tomoyo again, Kita absented herself from the heiress' sewing room with the intent of going back to her own room and cleaning up. Her adventure in the attic had left her smudged with dirt and dust, and she didn't want to get her new gift any dirtier than she already had. She came merrily around the corner…and skidded to a halt.

Kinomoto Touya, Resistance leader and one of the two most wanted men alive, was on his way down the stairs. He also stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. Neither moved for a moment, their eyes locked. It wasn't hostile—they simply hadn't had an occasion to seek each other out for anything. There had been brief moments, passing each other in the hallways or at meals and the like, but there were virtually no times when it had been just the two of them, one-on-one.

It was Kita who broke the commune first. Excited about her new gift and secure in her newfound knowledge about the appearance of the elusive Kinomoto sister, she was feeling unusually confident. "Do you like it?" she said, reaching out with both hands to grab the edges of her cape and fan it out behind her. She even spun around to model it for good measure. "Tomoyo-san gave it to me."

She missed the flash of recognition that surged across his eyes, and he made no comment to that effect. Instead, he simply said, "It suits you."

Kita stopped spinning and looked up at him; she walked up the stairs, moving closer to him. "She told me that it belonged to your sister…Kinomoto-san?" she said, gathering her nerve to ask a question she'd been dying to ask him since coming here and learning his story as she had, in bits and pieces. "Would you…would you tell me about your sister?"

She half-expected him to refuse to tell her anything, but once again he surprised her: he didn't even seem startled by her question. "Is there a reason you want to know?" he asked in a surprisingly kind voice. Though she really hadn't spent a great deal of time with him personally, the more she saw of him and passed these rare moments in his company, the harder it became for her to harbor the kind of fear she had initially felt towards him.

"I was just…I mean, just wondering," she finished lamely.

The Resistance leader thought for a moment before actually sitting down on the stairs, bringing himself closer to her eye level. Without even thinking about it, she stepped up a couple of steps and took a seat on the step beside him. The red cloak—the gift from Tomoyo-san—remained around her neck, draping around her and billowing as she sat on it a bit awkwardly.

He was silent a bit longer before he began to talk. His voice stayed soft and calm throughout, and his expression bore a gentle smile as he spoke fondly of his younger sister. He was seven years her senior, he said; their mother had died when they were both still children, and he admitted to being fiercely protective of his little sister, though he took great pleasure in teasing her.

"She was a kaijuu," he said at one point, chuckling at the memory of how angry she got when he called her such names, "but she was also my sister." He glanced down at Kita; the girl was watching him with wide green eyes, completely spellbound by his random ramblings.

Her eyes made his heart ache, but he didn't dare let her see it. Instead, he stood up. "Weren't you going to clean yourself up?" he said calmly, letting a bare hint of teasing slip into his voice.

"Oh yeah!" she said, just to her feet and whirling to start up the stairs. But she stopped after going up three steps and turned back around. "Thank you for telling me about your sister…" she paused, then added in the most tentative of whispers, "…Touya-san?"

He took a step upwards, reached out with one hand, and ruffled her short hair in a gesture of unmistakable affection. "That's all right." He turned and continued on his way down the stairs, where he turned and disappeared into the adjoining hallway.

Kita stayed on the stairs for a moment longer. For some reason, she felt very happy now. Smiling, she skipped up the stairs towards her room to complete her mission of getting herself cleaned up. But as she slipped into her own room, she had a belated realization: she _still_ didn't know the name of Touya-san's sister, the girl who had worn her face a decade earlier.

_**-o-**_

He'd been pondering over it for hours now, and try as he might, Kenji was at an absolute loss as to why he'd gone after Kita earlier that morning. Not only that, but he'd seen her in trouble and gone rushing to Hiiragizawa Eriol for help, something he would never have normally done. For some reason, though, the thought of anything happening to that girl, Kita…he couldn't stand it. He just couldn't bear the idea that she might be hurt somehow.

As a result, he found himself slumping on his favorite perch on the front porch, leaning up against one of the pillars, pondering over the dilemma of _why_. Why did it make him so uneasy to even think of something happening to that irritating girl? But no answers were forthcoming. It was so frustrating—even when she wasn't really doing anything, she made him miserable…

"So here you are."

Kenji was so lost to his thoughts and irritations that he failed to notice he was being approached. As a result, he jumped a mile at the sound of Eriol's voice and nearly fell sideways off the porch railing, a tumble that would have taken him to the ground probably two meters below.

Someone grabbed his hand and pulled; instinct kicked in, and he tightened his grasp on that person and held on. It was enough to get him righted once more on the porch barricade. He shook his head to clear the momentary panic and try to brush off the adrenaline rush that came with that panic. Once he was a little less shaky, he turned to actually see who had stopped his fall.

Kita stood beside him, his hand still held firmly in both of hers. Their eyes met with a clash that was almost audible, and it took a good minute before reality clocked back in and she released him.

Eriol waited patiently for the moment to pass before he stepped up to them. "Kita-san, why don't you have a seat as well?" Kenji silently swung his feet down to make room for Kita to obligingly hop up onto that railing beside him. "I have a gift for each of you."

The reactions were intriguing. Kenji looked cautiously interested—he was still so suspicious of them, even now. Kita, though, looked surprised and delighted, every inch the average ten-year-old about to receive a present—she still carried that puppy-dog trust, for him and Tomoyo.

Making a mental note of it to further track their progress, he held out his gifts. "I want you to take these, and guard them well. Do not lose them. Take care of them, and keep them with you at all times—though they may seem like nothing, they will protect you. In due time, I will teach you to use them."

What dropped into their hands were two small, rather odd objects. Kenji received what seemed to be a thick red rope with two small black balls attached to it. Kita was given a small key, bearing a star within a circle on top. The two children stared at the items before looking up at Eriol quizzically.

"What are they?" Kita asked, glancing over at Kenji's gift as well.

"Treasures," Eriol replied cryptically. "As I said before, keep these with you at all times. They are magic, and they will protect you. Guard them well, my young ones. One day, these treasures might very well save your lives." Smiling, he bowed, and absented himself, leaving the two children to gape at their new acquisitions in curious wonder.

It took a moment before they realized that they were now alone together.

The silence immediately grew heavy and awkward. Kenji looked away on the pretense of slipping the strange rope into his pocket. Kita realized that the key was attached to a chain, and in keeping with its apparent purpose, slipped it around her neck; some impulse compelled her to slide the key itself under her shirt, as though to protect it.

Finally, after several tense minutes had passed sluggishly by, Kita shot her companion a nervous, sidelong glance, only to find that he was watching her out of the corner of his eye as well. Their gazes turned questioning, searching, and then both of them, at last…

"I'm sorry."

_**-o-**_

A gloved hand closed the report on the mysterious burning deaths of two Guards in a seemingly-empty field a good distance outside of Tomoeda. That same hand drew away from the folder to stroke at its owner's chin thoughtfully.

It fit. It all fit so perfectly—the circumstances of their deaths gave credit to his belief that it was finally happening. He'd long been aware of the Prophesy and all that it entailed, and had been waiting for such an occurrence as this. It was the moment he'd been expecting. He'd known the moment that report had been dropped into his hands.

The Promised Ones had finally returned.

He would have to find them before anything could come to fruition, though. If they had not yet appeared, then it meant that perhaps the Prophesy was not _complete_, which led him to believe that there was still time to change what had been foretold to come.

He rose from his chair and turned to gaze out the window over the town that they had claimed as their own. Tomoeda—once the home of those who might have stood in their way, it was now the hub of activity for them, the center of their rule. It was a fitting irony, he found.

Smirking at his faint reflection in the window-glass, he remembered back to a particular day, when their power had been secured and the path had been laid for their march and conquest. Not only that, but he had also finalized his own place by completing the most important of missions on behalf of his superiors.

Soon. Very soon, he would have them and those who allied themselves with them, those who called themselves the Resistance. Hiiragizawa. Kinomoto. And the Promised Ones. All of them. He would personally crush them once and for all, leaving no further opposition to their—_his_ power.

As he leaned back into his chair once again, he steepled his black-gloved fingers together in front of his face recalled the night he had eliminated the only obstacle that could have destroyed them.

The night the Cardcaptors had died…by his hand.

* * *

**PS.** _See? Chapters are fewer and farther between…but they're also a bit longer than my average chapter! That's why they take forever, I suppose. I realized that I'm not giving Touya much page-time, so I'm trying to remedy that a bit. And Eriol's planning something…and I know what it is! You'll all get to know too—when the next chapter gets posted. So hopefully, sometime before the end of 2006. Maybe. If we're lucky. Thanks for tuning in, all. Much love!_

_Now…I'm going to Germany and Austria for a week. I'll catch everyone when I get back! Ciao!_


	7. Spellcasting

**AN: **…is anybody still out there? Anyone at all? Hello? Heh, guess the echo's a bad sign, isn't it? That's okay. I know I'm not giving this story a whole lot of attention, but I have every intention of finishing it. I promise you that. Even if it does take me a while. No hurting the lazy author, please!

Anyway, on we go! I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura. I'm just messing with them right now.

* * *

**Spellcasting**

Eriol fastened the last button on his shirt and smiled at the sunlight pouring in through his bedroom window. It was a lovely morning, sunny and bright, and he'd slept surprisingly well, better than he had in quite some time—putting him in an unusually good mood.

_Perhaps it has something to do with our little young ones,_ he thought, and not for the first time. He had been smiling a lot more as well. The entire atmosphere of the Safe House and the moods of everyone in it had seemed to lighten a great deal with the introduction of the two children.

Still smiling to himself, Eriol stepped out of his bedroom, closing the door behind him…and was immediately accosted by two of his very close, very frantic friends, both of whom were demanding some very quick, very specific answers.

_So much for a nice morning,_ he sighed inwardly, and tried to focus on Touya and Tomoyo.

"Are you really going to do it?" Touya demanded.

"Absolutely," Eriol replied. Outwardly, he seemed completely calm, though his stomach had instantly coiled into a tight knot at the topic of conversation.

"But Eriol…" Tomoyo asked, wringing her hands, "…is it really necessary?"

"It is," he nodded firmly. His expression softened at Tomoyo's worry. "I don't really want to do this, Tomoyo-san. You can't even imagine how much I don't want to do this to the kids—I'd rather die then hurt either of them." He reached out and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But it needs to be done. The way things are now, they wouldn't stand a chance against the Slayers. So I'm going to have to do this for their own sake."

"That sounds like an excuse to me," Touya spat angrily, crossing his arms. "Saying it's for their own good so you don't have to feel guilty about what you're going to do to them."

"You know my feelings about this," Eriol said with that same calm. "I have a feeling—a premonition, if you will—that things are going to come to a head very, very soon. They have to be ready if there is to be any hope."

"Will this hurt them?" Touya demanded, then faltered slightly as he backtracked, "…not that I care about Kenji or anything. But will they be harmed? And why can't you tell them?"

"Physically? Not at all, they'll be perfectly fine. I assure you of that," Eriol said flatly. Then his tone softened. "And I won't tell them because I don't want them to have time to be afraid of what is going to happen." He paused, then arched a brow. "Touya-san…are we being a bit overprotective?"

The Resistance Leader said nothing, but merely glared in response.

"We're just concerned about what this will do to them," Tomoyo explained, placating the boys before a real argument broke out. "…what will it do to them mentally and emotionally in the long run?"

Eriol's smile was sad. "I'm afraid there are some things even Clow Reed can't predict." He shook himself then, and smiled at his two friends. "But if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to." Without waiting for a response or any further discussion, he breezed past them and headed for the stairs. His mood had gone from an unprecedented high to complete tatters in a matter of moments.

He sighed as he walked down the staircase. He knew Touya and Tomoyo meant well, and he completely understood that they were just looking out for the best interest of the two children who had fallen into their midst and who they had all come to love. But at the same time, it was frustrating that he had to continually defend himself and his intentions and justify what he was going to do.

He was right. He knew he was in the right here.

No matter how much he hated it, and hated himself for it.

Nakuru was walking by as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Hey," he called to her, and she stopped. "Have you seen the children? They're usually up and about by now."

"They're out on the porch," she smiled and pointed towards the front door. "That's usually where the two of them end up." She paused, then added thoughtfully, "They've been spending a good deal of time together lately. I wonder if something's developing?" That last was said with a broad smile.

Eriol's grin was far more mysterious. "Perhaps…thank you." She nodded and continued on her way as he headed out onto the porch in search of his two young charges.

Sure enough, there they were, sitting on the wide banister that ran around the full length of the wide porch; they seemed to be engaged in conversation. It was Kita who spotted him first, though, and her expression brightened. "Eriol-san!" she smiled and waved. Kenji turned to glance over his shoulder; his reaction wasn't hostile, but certainly not as enthusiastic as Kita's welcome.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked smoothly, stepped up beside them.

"We were just talking," Kita replied cheerily.

"I just wanted to ask if I could borrow a few moments of your time this evening," he asked, showing no sign of his turmoil. "And before you even ask why, it's a surprise." He grinned and threw them both a conspiratorial wink.

"Okay," Kita agreed. Kenji merely nodded.

Eriol swallowed hard and went on. "If you two aren't busy at the moment, actually…I think I'd like to do another lesson now. Do you still have those items I gave you the other day?"

Within a moment, they had produced the treasures of key and cord.

Eriol nodded approvingly. "Very good. Now I'm going to show you how to use them. Kita-chan, you first. Put the key in the palm of your hand and hold it out like this." He held one arm out straight in front of him, his palm up. When she stood up and imitated his posture, he continued. "Good! Now, I want you to close your eyes and focus on the key. Focus on changing it."

She obeyed without a word, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Kenji looked on curiously.

"Now repeat after me," Eriol's tone dropped to a whisper. "Key that hides the power of the stars."

Kita hesitated for only a second before she murmured, "Key that hides the power of the stars…"

A small ring of light appeared around her, barely wide enough to circle her feet.

"Show your true form before me."

"_Show your true form before me…"_

The key lifted from the palm of her hand and began to glow, a round sphere of light.

"I, Kita, command you under our contract."

"_I, Kita, command you under our contract…"_

Her tone was soft, almost hypnotic. It was as though she was in a trance, unaware of anything.

"Release!"

"_Release!"_

There was a flare, and the tiny key stretched and reshaped itself into a short staff, crowned at one end with a ring bearing a star in the middle of it. The smooth pink handle landed squarely in the palm of her hand, and the light subsided.

Kita's eyes snapped open and stared in shock at what she had just done. She turned the staff over in her hands, gazing at it in open wonder. "Did…did I do that?" she breathed.

"You did. That's your magic. Kenji-kun," he turned to the boy, who jumped to attention. "Yours is a little different—not so much of an incantation as a visualization. You have the cord? Good. Now hold it up like this," he corrected Kenji's awkward stance to hold it up near his face, "and focus on it and only on it. Focus is key to unlocking it."

Kenji's eyes slid shut.

"Think of it as an extension of your arm," Eriol coached in a soft voice. "You can control it completely. Now imagine it changing shape in your hand. It's growing and shifting…" Before the last word had even left Eriol's mouth, the cord began to glow. The sorcerer fell silent and watched as it did exactly what he'd said: it changed. When the glow faded, Kenji was holding a sword.

_Impressive._ _I didn't even have to tell him what to think of. He just knew. Very interesting…_ Eriol thought, watching as the young man stared in amazement at the weapon in his hand. But the words Eriol spoke out loud were of encouragement. "Bravo, both of you! I encourage you to practice, as these are tools that will someday save your lives."

"How will this save me?" Kita asked, still regarding her staff with wonder.

"I am going to teach you to harness your magic," Eriol explained. "If all goes well, you will be able to call whatever magic you desire at will. The wand and the sword you hold are channelers. They will allow you to focus your magic to a very special, very specific task. We'll discuss those later. But for today, I want to see if you've been practicing like I told you."

To his surprise, it was Kenji who jumped first. "I have!" he declared. Without waiting for any further instruction, he held his hands out in front of him, cupping his fingers together. His brow furrowed, and in seconds a sizable sphere of light had appeared, hovering just above his palms.

Eriol was suitably impressed. "Excellent."

Kita suddenly looked nervous, but when the attention was turned to her, she stepped right up and did exactly as Kenji had done. Her sphere shone pink, as his had been green. Those seemed to be their colors, somehow.

Eriol was smiling at their progress—it seemed such a little thing to them, yet he was so proud of them both. It was strange to them both…yet they said nothing. The fact that they could do magic seemed incredible in and of itself. And so they listened, and they learned, and they wondered what surprise he had in store for them that evening.

_**-o-**_

"You shouldn't be here," Touya commented dryly from the doorway. He had been a tad surprised to walk into Eriol's study and find Yue standing there, staring out the window. But he just couldn't resist an opportunity to heckle the stoic Moon Guardian, especially after so long.

Yue made a noise that sounded like irritation.

"It's really not safe for you to be out and about yet. If they see you, it's going to be big trouble," Touya paused, grinned, and went in for the dig. "Although I'm sure Kita-chan wouldn't mind seeing her angel again…" He chuckled at the glare he got in response.

Yue turned his sapphire gaze back to the window for a moment before asking in a flat, emotionless voice, "When will we see our master again?"

Touya's expression softened. "Soon. It's coming soon."

"…Kerberos is worried," Yue said finally. "He does not like this. We fear for our master and our former master. Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun feel the same. And yet there is nothing we can do except wait and watch, is there?"

"No," Touya sighed. "There isn't."

_**-o-**_

"Can I ask you a question?"

Kenji glanced up at the intrusion of a voice into his thoughts. "Oh. Sure."

Kita hopped up on the porch railing, sitting so she could face him. They had a sort of unspoken accord, declaring that particular spot as their favorite place to sit if they were going to talk or think or whatnot, be they alone or together. Though they had been spending a great deal of time together…

She took a second to get herself comfortable before asking her question. "Would you tell me about yourself? I mean, where did you come from—your family? Your life?" She knew he had no parents and no family name; he had told her that before. But that didn't mean that he didn't have a story.

He looked at her for a moment, then turned his expressionless gaze away to look out over the green lawn in front of the Safe House. For a moment, Kita was afraid she had done something horribly wrong…but then Kenji began to speak. "I don't remember anything before I was a kid. For some reason, I think I was four. I have no idea who my parents were or what happened to them. Figure it was the Slayers, but I don't worry about it much. Most of what I remember was trying to survive on the streets."

Kita listened quietly, sensing that she was about to learn a great deal.

"I learned to steal when I was still really little," he went on, still looking out towards the horizon. "I had to. It was that or die. I wasn't old enough to really get death yet, but I knew I didn't want it to happen to me for a while. So I stole to stay alive—mostly food, occasionally other little things I could sell to make money. There's a lot of people who'll buy stuff like that. But mostly, I just got enough to keep me going. That was life—that and avoiding the Slayers."

Kita winced. There was very little tolerance for rule-breakers in the Slayers' world.

"When I was around eight or so, I met up with another guy named Mio. He was a couple years older than me, but the story was more or less the same. We became friends, or as much as you can be friends when you don't let yourself trust anyone. He introduced me to Seiichi. Wound up being the best time of my life." His expression had shifted to a smile.

"Who was Seiichi?" Kita prodded carefully.

"He was an old guy," Kenji explained. "He had a little gang of kids like me—street kids who were just in this to survive. He gave us something no one else ever had—someone to look out for us. It was actually a pretty good deal. We stole enough to feed ourselves and him, and he made sure we were taken care of. He's the one who taught me to read. Everyone watched out for each other." His tone was fond. "That was the best time of my life. I had friends—people I could actually trust—and I had the closest thing to a home and a father I've ever had. It was great." Now the look in his eyes grew distant as he paused.

"…there's not a happy ending, is there?" Kita ventured softly.

"No, there isn't," Kenji sighed. "I was out one night, away from the old house where we all stayed. When I came back, the Slayers were there." A moment ago, his voice had been fond with remembrance; now his tone was as warm and friendly as a glacier. "The Guards were standing around the building, watching it burn. They were laughing at it. I could hear the screams inside…" His eyes closed. "I didn't know what to do. I just remember…running. And not stopping for a long time."

He was quiet for a moment. Kita waited silently, shocked at what she was hearing. She felt a newfound respect for her young acquaintance. For all his brashness and anger, there was a great deal of quiet wisdom beneath the surface that only his particular "upbringing" could have wrought. He knew how to stay alive in almost any circumstance—she wouldn't have lasted a week.

Kenji opened his eyes. "Since then, I've really hated the Slayers. I swore I'd get revenge somehow, but I never actually knew how I was going to do it. Not a lot one kid can really do against them. I'd get killed in two seconds flat. But a few months later, I run into some moron on the street, and the next thing I know…I'm here," he turned his head to look back at her. "…why am I telling you this, anyway?"

Kita smiled. "I'm glad you trust me."

His eyes widened…but all he said was, "What about your family?"

"The Slayers killed my parents," she said. "At least, we're pretty sure they did—I never met them. I was adopted by the Hikari family after they found me wandering around when I was four years old. They had two boys of their own—my older brothers, I guess. I never thought of them as my real brothers, though, even though that's what I called them. They called me their sister. The parents…well, I called them my parents, okaasan and otousan, and they said I was their daughter, but…same thing." She shrugged. "I'm like you. I don't really know where I came from."

"It's tough," he replied softly.

"It is," she agreed. She leaned her head back against the pillar behind her and closed her eyes. "I just realized that I miss them. It's been a while since I saw them, and I don't think they know what happened to me. They probably figured the Slayers got me, and they're almost right." She sighed—family or not, she was ten years old, and this was the first time she'd been away from the only home she'd ever known for any length of time. "I wonder if they miss me."

Kenji's expression had gone unreadable once again. "They do. I know it."

_**-o-**_

The sun was setting just as they finished dinner. As soon as the last dish had been washed, dried, and put away, Eriol gathered the two children in the main entryway. "Do you both have your treasures?" he asked amiably. One hand, stuffed casually in his pocket, closed into a tight fist around his own treasure. When they both eagerly displayed the magical items he had given them, he grinned and started towards the front door. "Excellent. We're going out to the woods for this, so stay close. We don't want you to get lost!"

Kita scurried after him, all wide-eyed curiosity and innocence. Kenji didn't so much scurry as meander, but the questions were no less present for his feigned lack of interest in the proceedings. Neither asked questions—they trusted Eriol (more or less), and trusted that there would soon be an explanation for this strange activity.

Neither child was aware of the quiet tension they left behind.

The instant the front door was closed, Yukito and Nakuru had reverted to their true forms of Yue and Ruby Moon respectively. In a flutter of feathers, Kero-chan and Suppi did the same, transforming to Kerberos and Spinel Sun. It didn't really help much, but it at least made them feel like they were doing something other than just standing around. They joined the rest of the Safe House inhabitants in Eriol's study to wait. Kerberos seemed especially determined to pace a track in the carpet.

And Touya kept staring out the window towards the woods, his eyes scanning the night for a target that he knew he would never see. The darkness was just too heavy.

_**-o-**_

"Eriol-san? Where are we going?" Kita finally asked. She and Kenji had followed the sorcerer down the path into the forest and through the trees, but it seemed to her child's mind that they were going an awfully long ways into the woods. She really hated to ask him for fear of bothering him, but her curiosity was overwhelming.

She could see his silhouette turn, as if to look over his shoulder, and nod. "Don't worry, we're almost there," he said, his tone reflecting a smile. The shadow that was Eriol turned back to the front. "There's a little clearing up ahead that's the perfect place for magic. We won't be disturbed." A short distance ahead, he pushed a branch aside, stepped past, and gestured for them to pass. "As I said, it wasn't too far. This is the place."

It was as he had said: a small clearing amidst the trees, vaguely circular in shape, and with an opening in the treetops that allowed for a perfect view of the sky and plenty of natural illumination, courtesy of the moonlight. It seemed very calm.

"We're going to practice magic here?" Kita asked cheerfully.

"Yes," Eriol nodded. With the aide of the moon's glow, they could see his face. "Please, have a seat over there. Sit side by side, if you will." He pointed to a spot on the ground, and waited while they obligingly sat down on the ground, ignoring the dirt and leaves. "Please close your eyes."

It was at this point that Kenji spoke up. "What are we going to do?" He sounded suspicious.

"Actually, it's something I'm going to do first," Eriol replied easily.

"What?" Kenji prodded.

_Well, it's not like they haven't seen this before…_ Eriol decided, withdrawing the Sun Key from his pocket. "I have a treasure too, you know. Observe." He held it out and watched as it began to glow and hover above his palm. "_Key that hides the power of the Sun, show your true form before me. I, Eriol, command you under our contract. RELEASE!"_ There was a flash, and his infamous Sun Staff appeared.

"WHOA!" Kenji actually yelped.

"You had that before!" Kita exclaimed. "When you and Touya-san saved me!"

"Yes, I did," Eriol chuckled. "I'm sure there are quite a few Slayers who would love to have this little trophy on their wall. But for now, it remains mine. As I'm sure you've guessed, I use it for magic. What I'm going to do is cast a spell that will help you two with your magic. The power is there, but it's not emerging as fast as we'd like. So I'm going to try and unlock a part of it."

"Will it hurt?" Kita asked, her voice timid.

"…I don't believe it will," Eriol said kindly after a moment's thought. "You might feel a bit uncomfortable or strange, but I don't think it will hurt. This will help you in the long run, though. You'll be able to learn a great deal faster after this is over. I promise. All right?"

Two nods of assent.

"Thank you. Please close your eyes."

They obeyed.

Immediately, Eriol began working his magic, dipping into his considerable power and molding the magic to his will, bending it to accommodate what he needed done. It was a large spell; preparing to cast it took a bit longer than some others he had done in the past, but in short order he was ready.

He did, however, spare a moment to look down at Kita and Kenji, sitting before him.

Young.

Innocent.

And so trusting.

Eriol closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer. _Forgive_ _me…forgive me for what I must do…_ Taking a deep breath to steady his jangling nerves, he opened his eyes, and released the magic to do what he had melded it to accomplish.

Two pillars of light flared around the children: Kita was enveloped in pink, and Kenji in green. The colors of their auras, Eriol had told them—the colors of their magic. His own magic was dark blue, though now it melded with theirs to power the spell. This would take everything he and they had.

Eriol saw their eyes snap open at the last possible moment.

He heard Kita scream and Kenji shout.

And then the light exploded, swallowing the children up inside of it.

That was all that Eriol knew, as his knees gave out and the ground quickly introduced itself.

_**-o-**_

The assembly of those 'in the know' was growing restless.

It hadn't been that long since Eriol had taken the children into the woods to do what he said needed to be done…but it felt like an eternity. Still, they respected Eriol's wishes, and remained in the house. Still, that didn't stop them from preparing as much as they could under the circumstances.

When they saw the flare of light that meant the spell was being cast, they all flocked around the windows and watched in frightened anticipation. But as per the instructions, they still waited for the light to vanish—that would mean the spell was over.

As soon as the darkness fell again, there was a flurry of commotion, and a whole group of people spilled out into the night, heading into the forest. They finally reached the appointed clearing and skidded to a stop, tripping all over each other in the process.

Hiiragizawa Eriol lay sprawled on the ground. The Sun Key was in the leaves beside him, where it had most likely fallen from his hand and reverted from its staff form with the absence of his magic.

"Eriol?" Ruby Moon fell to her knees beside her master. "Eriol?" Still no response. Panic set in, and she grabbed his shoulders and gave him a frightened shake while Spinel Sun looked on anxiously. "ERIOL!" Finally, he groaned out loud. His head lulled back as she lowered him back to the ground, but otherwise he did not move. But it was enough for them: he was alive.

The rest of them—Kerberos and Yue in particular—were far more concerned and bewildered by the other two forms lying, unmoving, on the ground. They were a short distance away, side by side on the leaves, both lying prone on their backs. There was no immediate fear for these two, though, as they were clearly breathing.

"Kita-chan…" Tomoyo started to call, but stopped as she actually took a look at them, and realized that Eriol had actually done it; Touya stumbled up behind her, and the cry that tore from his throat was a sound she had never thought possible from a human voice. The spell-casting had been successful, and the proof was right there before them, unconscious on the ground before them.

Kita and Kenji.

But they were no longer children. They were now young adults, perhaps seventeen years of age.

And they looked exactly as the Cardcaptors had on the night they had died.

* * *

**PS. **_AHA! So that's what Eriol had up his sleeve! Cackle cackle cackle…ahem. I promise there's a reason for this, and it will be explained in the next chapter…whenever that gets done. I make no promises. So yay! But would you believe we're actually nearing the end? Like, maybe three more chapters to this story, the last one of which will definitely be insanely long? Hard to believe, yes…_

_Parts of Kenji's back-story were inspired by Skif's tale in Take a Thief, by Mercedes Lackey._

_Anyhoo, thanks for reading, everyone._ _Hope you liked it, hope you'll stick with it, and hopefully I will get this updated again sooner this time around. Ciao, all. Much love!_


	8. Hiding No More

**AN:** Oh my god…I'm updating! Quick, someone call Hell and ask if it's snowing! But anyway, we're gonna keep on trucking as we near the conclusion. Read on, my friends! I don't own CCS. I'm merely playing with them for my own amusement.

* * *

**Hiding No More**

When Kita opened her eyes, she was immediately aware that something was different. She didn't know what exactly, but she felt very strange. But she also felt very tired, and so she decided that getting up was not going to happen immediately. Even without opening her eyes, she was aware that the room was very bright. Was it morning?

Instead, she stayed where she was—she assumed she was safe in her bed, judging by the softness beneath her and the warm feeling of a blanket on top of her—and she tried to remember how she had gotten here. Something had happened, she was sure. But she couldn't remember what.

Her thoughts drifted back to the day before. Eriol-san had said he wanted to show her something, her and Kenji both. They had accompanied him out to the woods after the sun had disappeared behind the distant horizon—he had said he was going to do something to help them unlock their magic and find their power faster. On Eriol-san's request she had closed her eyes, and then there was the feeling of magic around her, tingling against her skin…

And that was all she remembered.

What had happened? She had asked Eriol-san if whatever it was he intended to do would hurt them, and he had said no. He had told them that they would feel a bit strange perhaps. And he was right. Oh, was he right—she felt disoriented and strange. Still, enough was enough. She had laid abed long enough—time to get up and see if she could find out what had happened to them.

Briefly, she thought of Kenji and wondered if he was all right. She decided that she would find him straight away and find out. Perhaps Eriol-san's plan had worked—if whatever he had done had awakened their untapped magic…she wondered what new things she would be able to do with that magic. Maybe she would be able to help them fight the Slayers after all!

Now in an unusually good mood, she turned to swing her legs out of bed, pushed herself to her feet…and promptly fell over, winding up flat on her face on the hardwood floor beside her bed in a tangle of arms and legs that did not feel like her own. She knocked her head hard enough that she saw stars for a moment—they were so pretty—but she shook her head, and they cleared away quickly enough. That done, she tried to push herself up to a sitting position, only to notice that something was very very wrong.

Her arms…they seemed a great deal longer than they had been yesterday.

In fact, her whole body felt—and looked—strange. Taller. Longer. Gangly…

What in the world was going on?

Kita's good mood had completely disappeared. In its wake was left confusion and panic. She reached up with those long arms and grabbed onto the bed. Using it as leverage, she managed to pull herself back to her feet. Once standing, she held onto the footboard and didn't dare move until she felt like she was relatively steady. While she was standing there, she spared a moment to look down at herself. Her initial feeling was confirmed—she was a LOT taller than she had been the previous day.

She let go of the bed and started moving slowly across the room. When she got within arm's reach of the dresser, she reached out with both hands and took hold of the top of it to brace herself. Once steady, she lifted her head and looked in the mirror on the wall.

And Kita screamed at the unfamiliar face that looked back at her.

"Kita-chan!"

She heard Tomoyo-san's voice in the hallway accompanied by pounding footsteps rushing towards her room. But she did not move her eyes from the mirror, not even when the door was flung open and Tomoyo-san burst into the room with Nakuru-san hot on her heels. "Kita-chan!" Tomoyo gasped, evidence of her sprint to get here. "Are you all right…" The words trailed off as she actually took a look at the girl standing in front of the dresser, staring into the mirror in horror.

"What…what happened to me?" Kita stammered, lifting one hand to cover her mouth. "Tomoyo-san, what is—who is…" She couldn't even manage a coherent question.

"It's all right," Tomoyo crossed the room and put her hands on Kita's shoulders. "Kita-chan, that's you."

"But…but…I'm not that old!" she protested. "What happened?"

Tomoyo turned and gave a hand-signal to Nakuru, who nodded and turned to jog back down the hall in search of Eriol. She conducted the search with her usual quiet and subtlety—by calling for the sorcerer by name at the top of her lungs. Sighing, but appreciating the effort, Tomoyo returned her attention to the terrified girl at hand. "I think that's best explained by the one responsible."

She guided Kita out of the room and down the stairs with the intent of taking her to Eriol's study…but they ran into a road block on the way there. Namely, Eriol himself.

Who was being confronted by a teenaged boy with shaggy brown hair and dark, blazing eyes.

Kita stopped short on the stairs, staring at the boy.

Eriol noticed them first, and turned to them with a tired smile. "Ah, good morning!"

The boy turned to glare at them…but the glare immediately softened as his eyes met Kita's. She swallowed hard and said, "…Kenji-kun?" When he nodded, her eyes widened slightly.

Eriol looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment before he cleared his throat. "Well…I think the two of you are entitled to an explanation. Shall we go to the study and have a talk?"

Kenji's expression hardened as he look back towards the sorcerer. "Better be a damn good one."

"Of course."

Kita looked back over her shoulder at Tomoyo, who nodded as well, and they followed Eriol.

_**-o-**_

Touya watched silently from the top of the stairs as Eriol led the two newly-minted teenagers into his study, with Tomoyo bringing up the rear. He didn't turn around as footsteps came up behind him; instead, he kept his eyes on the young woman with the auburn hair.

"Are you all right?" Yukito asked from behind him.

"…she looks exactly the same," Touya replied quietly after a few seconds had passed. "Do you think she'll ever remember the truth?"

"Eriol says that she still carries the memories. They will come out at some point. It's just a matter of what will cause them to surface," Yukito replied, walking forward a few steps to stand beside him. "When those memories awaken, the Cardcaptor will truly return. The same goes for Kenji."

Touya nodded. "You know…I don't have my magic anymore. I gave it to Yue—to you—to stop you from disappearing. I can't see things the way I did when I was that age. But I still have a bad feeling…" He turned away, leaning back against the railing; Yukito had a perfect view of his dark expression. "I can't shake this feeling that I'll never truly get to see my sister again."

_**-o-**_

The two teenagers shifted uncomfortably in their chairs as Eriol moved to sit at his desk. Tomoyo stood behind them, one hand on the back of each of their seats. She was there for support—both of the children (though they technically were no longer children) trusted her, and so she would be there for them.

"What I told you yesterday was true," he began. "I told you I was going to do something to help bring your magic out and awaken it to its fullest potential. This is the result. Magic will grow and develop as the one who possesses it grows. The training I gave you at the beginning consisted of the basics—learned to tap your magic, and control it. You have conscious control. By bringing you up to this age, we are also going to bring you into your magic."

"Why didn't you tell us that it would do this to us?" Kita asked softly.

Eriol smiled sadly. "Patronizing as it may sound, I didn't want to scare you. The fact is that you two could potentially be the key to defeating the Slayers. And for that to happen, we need you to be at your peak. I know it's a lot to ask, but…we need you."

"…what do we have to do?" Kenji asked. He sounded suspicious.

"Just what you've been doing. Learn to use your magic. Learn to fight. Learn to utilize the tools we've given you," Eriol said. "When the time is right…I will show you the true extent of your powers." He looked down at the pink and gold book on his desk, but did not show it to them. "When the time is right…"

_**-o-**_

"Make your report," the Captain said curtly, not looking up from the papers on his desk.

"Reports say that there is something amiss in the northern sector, sir," the Guard said in a low voice.

"Oh?" the Captain suddenly seemed far more interested. "Such as?"

"It is possible that there are people hiding there, sir," the Guard replied. "Possibly a Resistance base."

"…send the Guard to check it out. Immediately," the Captain said sharply. "Report back as soon as possible with any details."

"Yes, sir."

_**-o-**_

Time passed, as it has a tendency to do.

The changes in Kita and Kenji were remarkable, both in their magic and in their character. Both were growing more proficient in their use of simple magic and more complex magic, both by hand and through the tools Eriol had given them, sword and wand.

Even Kenji had finally shed his disinterested attitude towards the magical arts, and now welcomed the training. It would make him stronger, and thus he would be able to fight. His progress was impressive, and he was starting to find his own style, incorporating some of his old street moves onto a unique magical style. It worked, and worked well.

Kita was growing more confident. Her skills were not yet as polished as Kenji's, but her actual abilities far surpassed his. Though she still lacked finesse, she had proven herself quite capable by holding her own against Eriol on a few occasions. After one such mock-duel, in which they had deadlocked, he had smiled and told her that he had not been holding back. She had matched him at full power…and there was still more in her that wasn't coming out.

They weren't the only ones undergoing a change, though. There was a change in the most stoic member of the Resistance as well: Kinomoto Touya. When she wasn't practicing or training, Kita spent a great deal of time with him. He told her stories of his sister; he seemed to smile more.

And the relationship between the two teenagers was changing as well. The signs were small—a soft word here, a slight touch there. Nothing serious, but enough to betray a growing attraction to a watchful eye. It was only a matter of time before infatuation blossomed into something more; those who knew the two best as they had been were quite certain that history would repeat itself in this case.

Such was the state of affairs one afternoon when Kita wandered into the kitchen while Tomoyo and Rika were having a conversation…

_**-o-**_

When she heard the word "sakura" come out of Tomoyo's mouth, Kita was startled. It was a Forbidden Name, after all, and so she asked about it. "Tomoyo-san? What are you talking about?"

Tomoyo smiled. "I was just saying that the sakura are blossoming. And I know what you're thinking—I'm talking about the flower, not the name." Kita looked relieved, and so Tomoyo went on. "There used to be entire festivals around those flowers. We would go out and watch them—hundreds, if not thousands of people would go and observe the flowers."

"I've never seen them…" Kita sighed. "Not like you're describing, at least."

"…why don't you ask Eriol if he minds you going out?" Tomoyo suggested. "If you go a little further up in the hills, there's a gathering of trees there. It's absolutely lovely. Ask Eriol if he minds—I don't know if he had anything he wanted you to do for training today."

Kita said a quick thanks and ran to find Eriol.

"If you're careful," he said after a moment's thought. "Maybe you should take Kenji with you. I'd feel better if you weren't alone. If the need arises, use your magic to protect yourselves. I think you'll be all right, though. You should go see them—they're beautiful."

Thrilled, Kita caught Kenji in the hallway. "We're going out for a bit!"

"…we are?" Kenji blinked.

"Eriol-san said we could go see the sakura—the flowers are supposed to be blooming now!" she said excitedly. "Please come with me? Eriol-san says he'd prefer if I didn't go alone. Please?" She clasped her hands together and gave him a pleading look.

And try as he might, Kenji couldn't resist it. He sighed and agreed, and they headed out into the hills. The trip there was relatively uneventful, the conversation light and simple. The hills in question were steep and rocky in a few places, and so finding their way was a bit tricky in some spots. But finally, they climbed over a large rock…and found themselves staring down over a valley that seemed to be filled to overflowing with white-pink flowers, as far as the eye could see.

"Oh, wow…" Kita breathed, taking in the sight. Beside her, she heard Kenji murmur a similar response.

It was easily one of the most beautiful sights either of them had ever seen.

They sat and just looked out over it for a long time. The breeze even carried a few petals up to them. Kita managed to catch a whole flower that somehow floated to her, and put it in her hair, just to be silly. But overall, there was something so tranquil and calming about this place, this sight…it seemed so at odds with the things that went on in their day-to-day lives.

The sun had moved a considerable distance across the sky and was starting to set when they both sighed and decided that they should head back. As they climbed to their feet…they heard voices nearby.

Both immediately started looking, scanning their surroundings for any sign of movement that suggested human activity. And they saw the source of the voices—at the exact same moment that the Guard spotted them from further up in the hills.

"Run!" Kita gasped, and they both clambered down the hill as fast as they could, searching for a place to hide. Eriol had told them that they could—and should—use their magic to defend themselves if the situation called for it, but nature's famous 'fight or flight' instinct had kicked in, and it preferred flight to fight as was possible.

Kenji jumped off a large boulder a little ahead of her; Kita followed, and gasped when he grabbed her arm and pulled her with him into a small crevice between two large boulders. It was almost like a cave, surrounded on both sides and above by stone. The opening was small, but there was a surprising amount of room beyond that opening. It was in that space that they huddled together, listening as the voices drew nearer. If their pursuers found them…they could use their magic from inside this protective cage.

But fear had taken its hold. Kita had been brought up by her adoptive family to fear the Slayers and their Guard, and one could not immediately shed a notion that one had lived with for a lifetime. The deeply rooted fear she had held since childhood rose, and before she realized it, Kita felt herself start to cry. It was horrible and childish, but…she just couldn't help it.

"Shh!" Kenji shushed her, alarm plastering itself across his features.

She put both hands over her mouth to try and stop the sound, but small hiccups still escaped. And the voices were coming closer and closer. If the Guard heard them…

At a loss for what else to do, both to quiet her and to distract her from her fear, Kenji did the first thing that came to mind. It was the only thing he could think of, and in a moment of desperation he did it.

He grabbed Kita's wrists, pulled her hands away from her mouth, and pressed his lips against hers. Hard.

Kita made a small sound of surprise…and then fell silent.

They stayed like that, pressed against the back of the small cave, waiting as the voices drew nearer…and then passed. But they could still hear the Guard moving around in the hills, looking for the two people they had seen out there. Even after the hills went silent again, they didn't dare to leave. What if some had been left behind to continue the search or watch for the fugitives if and when they crawled out of hiding?

So they stayed there…and as the sounds outside grew softer, Kenji pulled away. He swallowed hard and moved back, away from her. As the darkness moved upon them, they simply looked at each other. With the darkness, though, came another problem—the temperature began to drop. And it wasn't long before they both began to shiver.

"Kenji-kun…" Kita whispered.

"Hmm?"

She didn't actually say anything else, but instead moved over and sat next to him, wrapping her arms around him. When he started in surprise, she said, "I'm cold. You're cold. Let's just try to stay warm together, okay?"

He nodded mutely and shifted a little, sliding his arms around her in turn.

After a while, Kita spoke again. "Ne, Kenji-kun?"

"What?"

"…why did you kiss me?"

"I didn't want the Slayers to hear you."

"Oh…" There was a wistful tone in that one whispered syllable that made him wonder…

On an impulse he was sure he would regret, Kenji turned his head. "Hey…"

When she turned to look at him, he hesitated for a second before leaning forward and kissing her again.

This time, she reacted quickly, recovering from her surprise to return the favor. It certainly wasn't expert, especially as the kiss deepened and hands began to explore a bit more, but it felt so wonderful for the two of them to be there together like that…it seemed so _right_…

And neither of them was really cold anymore.

_**-o-**_

"We saw something in the hills," the Guard said, kneeling. "There seem to be people hiding there."

"Excellent work," the Captain said. He rose and smirked. "Order the strike immediately. We will move at first light." His grin grew more feral. "Let's flush out the rats once and for all."

_**-o-**_

When dawn broke, Kenji crept from their hiding place and peered around. He heard no sounds, saw no one, and sensed nothing. It seemed that their pursuers had left the hills. They had made it through a very long night. For the moment, at least, they were safe. "Come on, it's okay," he turned and called back softly, gesturing for her to follow.

Kita climbed out, squinting in the early morning light. She accepted Kenji's offer of an assisting hand and together they were able to climb back up onto the rocks. The sun was creeping over the horizon, bathing the sky and the hills in an array of reds and golds.

But the beauty of the sunrise was marred by what had become of the valley. The previous afternoon there had been sakura trees as far as the eye could see, scattering pale petals everywhere. And now…

There was nothing left, save for the remnants of charred tree trunks. The entire valley had been burned, the trees destroyed. The Guard had probably done it as part of their search, trying to burn them out of hiding…and the result was devastating. Given the nature of it all and the lack of smoke and noise that they'd heard while in their hiding spot, it was entirely possible that this was the work of magic.

"We should get going," Kita said softly. "They're probably wondering where we are." That was only part of it; the other part of it was that she wanted to get away from the scene. What had been so beautiful a short time before was now obliterated, and it broke her heart.

Somewhat reluctantly, they both tore away from the loveliness of the dawn and the sadness of the decimated trees and began climbing over the rocks, heading back towards the Safe House. For a long while, they moved along quietly, not saying much beyond cautioning the other to watch their step.

As the Safe House came into view, Kenji stopped. Kita went on a few more steps before she realized he had paused, and she turned to look at him. "What is it?"

He looked down at the ground. "About last night…I-I'm sorry." He felt his face go red as he thought of it. Kissing her…it was a dream he hadn't know he'd been keeping until it had actually happened. He wasn't apologizing because he regretted it. He was apologizing because in that moment when he had first kissed her to keep her quiet and avoid the attention of the Guard…he had realized exactly how much she meant to him. And he didn't want her to be upset over it.

To his surprise, Kita blushed in return…but smiled. "It's okay. I didn't mind."

They stood there for a moment, staring at each other, as something warm and happy stirred deep down. Strange…it felt like it was something that had always been there, just waiting for the moment when it could finally be released.

But they couldn't just stand there forever. Kita reached for his hand, and he reached back, and hand in hand they made their way down to the Safe House, passing through Eriol's barrier—after Kita's earlier exploit with the Guard, Eriol had made a point of teaching them how to traverse the shields.

Sure enough, the entire place was in an uproar. When they walked into the house, they were descended upon immediately. Tomoyo in particular was wringing her hands in a panic and kept muttering to herself about how she shouldn't have let them go alone, what was she thinking, she was an idiot, and the like. They tried to explain amidst the scoldings.

But the lectures died as soon as they mentioned seeing the Guard in the hills. And the mood shifted from concerned and relieved to horrified when they said they had been seen up there, though they had hidden and not been found.

They omitted the part about how they had spent their time in hiding. Somehow, they had silently come to a mutual agreement that the others really didn't need to know that they had kissed—a lot—and enjoyed a few nervous touches along the way. That was not something they intended to share.

As they finished their story, Eriol began giving rapid orders, and others began flying to obey them. But he stopped in mid-sentence and closed his eyes as a deep shudder seemed to course through his entire body. It was powerful enough that he had to grip the staircase railing for support.

"Eriol-kun?" Tomoyo asked, concerned. She put one hand on his shoulder.

"…they're attacking the shields," he said, voice slightly shaky. "There's an attack in progress as we speak." He looked towards the door, as if trying to peer through the walls of wood and stone and see out to where the attackers were. His expression darkened. "They've found us."

_**-o-**_

The Safe House was like a wasp's nest, with everyone flying around left and right to ready for the impending attack. There were already certain preparations set, but still…the idea that the Safe House could be found seemed like such a remote possibility. Yet now it was an all-too-frightening reality, and all of them knew full well that it could be their last stand.

Eriol gave a few orders and sprinted to his study. He had left the Sun Staff on his desk earlier—a rare display of stupidity, he privately thought. He wasn't usually so careless.

Tomoyo was right on his heels. She opened a closet and retrieved her own weapon—after the Slayers had taken over and the Resistance formed, she had decided that she needed to learn some manner of self defense. Though she walked amongst the upper class and rubbed elbows with the elite, she always knew, deep down, that someday she would be found out. It seemed today was that day.

The bow and arrow were well-cared for and kept in prime condition. It was a primitive weapon, but given her lack of magical abilities, a long-distance weapon seemed her best choice. And though she hated to do it, when the rare need came up she could be deadly accurate with it.

She was fishing into the quiver to retrieve the ribbon she kept there for tying her hair back when Eriol grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. "Come on, let's go," he said shortly, pulling her away from her weapon. "There's not much time."

"Eriol-kun, what do you think you're doing?" she asked, bewildered.

"I'm taking you and a few of the others," he replied, "and locking you in the basement."

"…what?" Tomoyo blinked. She was stunned, to say the least.

"If you're found bound and locked up," he went on, pulling her towards the basement door, "you can say that you were taken as a hostage. You have the name and the respect to be believable, as well as being a worthy target because of your wealth and standing."

"Eriol-kun—"

"If there are others with you telling the same story, it could save all of your lives."

"Eriol-kun—"

"You can tell them about the horrible mental and emotional tortures we put you through—"

"ERIOL!" Tomoyo finally screamed his name—without the usual honorific—and wrenched her arm free of his grasp, just outside the basement door. When he turned to look at her, she met his eyes angrily. "I having been hiding from them for ten years now. I'm sick of it!"

"Tomoyo-san, go!" he said, frustration coloring his tone. "If things go wrong—if this really is to be our last stand—at least you'll have a chance to live. You can still do some good for this world!"

She stood there silent, unmoving. Just when he thought that maybe he'd won the argument, she closed the distance between them in two strides. She grabbed the front of his shirt in both hands and dragged him down into a bruising kiss.

Eriol's staff dropped to the floor with a clatter. One of his hands snaked around her waist, crushing her against him, while the other braced against the wall. Tomoyo clung to him, both her hands tangling in his hair as ten long years of restraint and pent-up frustrations and longings came pouring out, spurned on by one bold move borne of a desperate moment.

The attack that had seemed so frightening and imminent only a moment before was now nothing more than a minor thought in the back of both their minds. It wasn't right of them to ignore the danger in favor of this, but neither cared. It could very well be their last chance.

For Eriol in particular…he had given so much of himself these past years to keep everyone safe and protect the hope that someday the Cardcaptor would return to set things right in the world. Was it so wrong of him to want something just for himself? Was that selfish?

When they broke the kiss, there were a few beats of silence as they both tried to catch their breath. Tomoyo smiled and touched one hand to the side of his face. "I refuse to lie anymore. No matter what happens here, I will stand with you. And if need be, I will go to my death with you."

"Tomoyo…" he whispered her name sans the usual '-san' on the end. And he smiled. "I love you."

_**-o-**_

"What's going on?" Kita watched everyone run around in a panic. "What do we do?" She saw people grabbing weapons, shouting at each other…it was frightening. Eriol-san had said there was an attack on the shields—was this going to be the battle they were told they would have to fight?

She let her hand reach out and find Kenji's. He gave her fingers a squeeze that was enough to both reassure her and let her know that he probably felt the same way she did. She was grateful for him, grateful for how far they had really come.

Hands touched their shoulders, and they both turned to find Yukiko standing over them. "Come with me," he said, his soft voice unusually brusque. "Quickly—we don't have much time." He looked worried, a contrast to his usual easygoing demeanor.

They obediently followed him into Eriol's study. He moved behind the desk and addressed them in that same rushed manner. "You have the tools that Eriol gave you?" When they produced the wand and sword, he nodded approvingly. "Good. You are going to have to use them."

"Is this the fight?" Kita asked.

"This is it, Kita-chan," Yukito replied. "You two will have to fight. It's probable that you will have to hurt other people, and there's a possibility that you could yourselves be hurt or killed. There's no reason to hide that fact from you—if anything, I suspect you're more aware of it than many of us. But you two must not die here today. If something goes wrong, you need to take this." He held up a pink book, decorated ornately in gold. "Take this book and run. Get away from this place. Whatever happens here, this book must not fall into the Slayers' hands. Do you understand me?"

The two teenagers nodded mutely.

"Good," Yukiko nodded. "I think it's time."

He led them back to the main entryway, where most of the Resistance fighters and sorcerers had gathered. They had taken arms; those who used magic had readied their own tools. It was silent and grim in the room.

Nakuru and Suppie were standing beside Eriol. He looked at them and said something, softly enough that he could not be heard. The two nodded, and the sorcerer raised his staff. Magic flared and surged around the two. A moment later, it vanished, and where the two had been now stood a tall woman and a black panther, both with butterfly-like wings.

Kero-chan flew over to them, but before he could speak, Kenji asked, "Who are they? What happened?"

"Nakuru is Ruby Moon. Suppie is Spinel Sun," he replied. "They help Eriol." The little creature then addressed Yukito. "I think it's our turn now."

"I think you're right," Yukiko nodded, and closed his eyes as he was enveloped in white wings. Beside him, Kero-chan did the same. A magic circle flared on the floor beneath the both of them. The assembly looked on in wonder.

When the white feathers parted, Kero-chan had gone from being the size of a plush toy to being a full-grown lion, with an ornamented breast plate and large white wings. Yukito had been replaced by a tall, somber-looking man swathed in white and blue.

As everyone looked on—for this was not a transformation they had witnessed—Kita looked up at the being who had replaced Yukito. "It was you…" she said softly. "You're the one I saw in the woods that night."

"His name is Yue," Kerberos spoke up.

"Yue…" Kenji repeated softly.

The conversation was stalled then as Eriol spoke up and addressed the crowd. "Whether we are ready for them or not, they are on our doorstep. Fight well, fight bravely, and pray that Fate will decide this in our favor." As a rule, Eriol did not believe in such things, but given the circumstances it would be rather nice to feel that there was a higher being watching out for them at this point.

He turned and led them outside. Everyone rallied around him—their leader, their savior and protector. They owed their lives to him, and would stand beside him to the end. Tomoyo stood right next to him, her bow and arrow slung over her shoulder. She gave his hand a squeeze and smiled at him. "This is it…"

With a nod, Eriol took a deep breath, raised his staff…and dropped the shields.

* * *

**PS.** _Okay…whew. So we finally updated this. I did some serious soul-searching on this fic, and I decided that the next chapter will, in fact, be the conclusion. Then this fic will be done. The fact is that I'm not much in the CCS fandom anymore—haven't been for a while—but I do want to finish this fic. So I'm going to do my best to give it a good ending._

_In January, there's a challenge on LiveJournal called Fic Off, in which the goal is to finish a work-in-progress. I would very much like to finish the last chapter of this story by the end of the month for that challenge. So wish me luck, and I hope you'll tune back in for the conclusion._

_Thanks for reading, all! Much love!_


End file.
